1 






I 



■ 




I 



THE GREAT CONFLICT. 



A DISCOURSE 



CONCERNING BAPTISTS, AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY. 



BY 



GEORGE C. LORIMER, 



MINISTER AT THE TEMPLE. 







BOSTON : 
LEE AND SHEPARD, PUBLISHERS. 

NEW YORK: 
CHARLES T. DILLINGHAM. 

1877. 



o 






THE LIBRARY 
or CONGRESS 

W SHINGTOH 



COPYRIGHT. 
LEE AND SHEPARD. 

1877. 



Franklin Press: 

Electrotyped and Printed by 

rand, Avery, & Co. 



TO 



KEY. W. W. EYERTS, D.D., 



MY FIRST PASTOR AND MY LIFE-LONG FRIEND, 



GKjeae Pages 



ARE AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED. 



" We ought to obey God, rather than men." 

Peter the Apostle. 

" 'Tis liberty alone that gives the flower 
Of fleeting life its lustre and perfume; 
And we are weeds without it. All constraint, 
Except what wisdom lays on evil men, 

Is evil." 

Cowper the Poet. 

La liberte de conscience est certainement la plus necessaire de 
nos libertes ; elle est la condition et la source de toutes les autres. 
C'est comme creatures pensantes que nous portons la responsabilite' 
de notre avenir ; et quand on ^touffe la force de la pensee ou qu'on 
en contrarie le d^veioppement, on nous ote du meme coup le droit 
et les moyens le disposer de notre volonte*. 

Jules Simon the Statesman. 



This little book is the outgrowth of a discourse on 
Eeligious Liberty, which was delivered at the request of 
Rev. W. W. Everts, D.D., near the close of the year 
1876, in Chicago. As a treatise it does not claim to be 
exhaustive, but it is hoped that it may prove suggestive. 
The veil of history which it only partially lifts, some 
stronger hand may be inspired to withdraw entirely, that 
the divine beauty of liberty may shine upon the world 
more clearly. 

The following pages will be found to illustrate the 
truth, that the sublimest movements of history have not 
originated with the most highly educated or the most 
splendidly endowed. Leaders in great enterprises, are 
not always those whose gifts and standing appear to 
entitle them to the post of honor. Poor and compara- 
tively illiterate men, who realize the need of radical 
reforms to save them and their families from utter 
degradation, are the more common instruments of their 
inauguration and accomplishment. 

This is especially true of liberty. It is not onty for 
the people, it has been of the people as well. The 
noble-born, the aristocratic, the men exalted by their 
position above the grosser evils of tyranny, have rarely 

been the most active leaders in warring against its cruel 

7 



8 

assumptions. . They have not felt the weight of the 
shackles, and therefore have not, save in some extraor- 
clinaiy cases, been among the first to strike away its 
rivets from the souls or bodies of the race. 

It should not therefore be a matter of surprise to my 
readers, that the earliest advocates of soul-freedom were 
men and women of humble origin, and of humble 
attainments. Of vigorous virtue, of strong intellect, 
enlightened, it is true, by the teachings of the Bible and 
the Spirit, but unadorned by the polished graces of 
society, its earliest and most persistent friends went 
forth to the struggle. They realized, as others could 
not, the world's need of religious freedom ; and, without 
counting the cost too nicely, they arrayed weakness 
against strength, poverty against wealth, lowliness 
against distinction ; and they won — or are winning — 
because they arrayed right against . wrong, God against 
man. 

If this impression shall encourage the disciples of 
Christ, whatever their order or degree in the social scale, 
to realize that they should stand for something, should 
think great things, and attempt them too ; if it shall 
impel them to seek the invincible exaltation of a mighty 
cause, an uncontrollable passion, which, like a tornado 
shall sweep away the brooding pestilence of stagnant 
conventionalism, or which, like the Heavenly inspiration 
of ancient prophets, shall thrill them with a strange fire, 
burning their lips to utter words that shall reach through 
remotest years, — their friend and brother, the author 
of this book, will not have written in vain. 



THE GEEAT CONFLICT. 



Liberty is one of those words which challenge 
love and devotion. It needs no recommendation; 
for it belongs to the same category as order, as 
progress, as truth, as law. It is one of the ideas 
which appeal to human interests in all ages and 
everywhere, and which, in some sense or other, is 
accepted as a principle of vigorous, healthful life. 
Indeed, of all the words whereby in time past the 
genius, enterprise, and heroism of men have been 
inspired ; of all words that have served as watch- 
cries and battle-signals along the lines of history, 
this has ever stood foremost, most regnant and 
potential. Even when its meaning has been less 
transparent than at present, — and, if Lieber is to 
be credited, it has yet a force and import not fully 
apprehended, — it has still possessed the magic quali- 
ties of a spell to start a spirit, and sway a people. 

Whether inscribed on the banners of revolution 
or on the altars of martyrdom, whether written in 

9 



10 THE GREAT CONFLICT. 

the constitutions of governments or in the covenants 
of churches, in both departments of society, the civil 
and religious, this word " liberty " has awakened a 
new consciousness of manhood ; and like the fiat of a 
god, penetrating the inert elements of nature, it has 
wrought convulsions and upheavals among the torpid 
masses of the nations, as marvellous as those which 
geology records. In the name of liberty, eloquence 
has pronounced its grandest orations ; in the name 
of liberty, statesmanship has enacted its wisest and 
most enduring statutes ; in the name of liberty, 
poetry has sung its sweetest and most plaintive 
measures ; in the name of liberty, piety has borne its 
heaviest burdens, and breathed its divinest prayers. 
In this sacred name, Milton, Hampden, Locke, Tay- 
lor, Williams, Otis, Henry, and others too numerous 
to mention but too glorious to be forgotten, thought, 
wrought, and suffered in their day ; and in this name 
millions of the unknown, such as the yeomen of 
England and America, the peasants of Switzerland, 
and the bourgeoisie of France, forsaking their busi- 
ness, their property, their friends, went forth with 
armor buckled on by sister, or falchion girded to the 
side by wife, from the home to the bivouac, from 
the sweet amenities of life to the rude shock of arms, 
and oftentimes to the damp of the dungeon, the 
terror of the scaffold, or the horror of the stake. 



DEFINITIONS OF LIBERTY. 11 

To the rise and progress, the struggles and tri- 
umphs of liberty, in the sublimest sphere of human 
thought and action, and to the memory of the lowly 
men who shed their blood 

" In confirmation of the noblest claim, - — 
Our claim to feed upon immortal truth, 
To walk with God, to be divinely free, 
To soar, and to anticipate the skies," — 

these humble pages are devoted. 

Religious liberty has been frequently defined. 
Harrington, in his Political Aphorisms (pp* 23, 
24), declares that it is realized " where a man, ac- 
cording to the dictates of his own conscience, may 
have the free exercise of his religion, without impedi- 
ment to his preferment or employment in the state." 
Archbishop Whately, in referring to the subject, says, 
" We merely maintain that a man has a right, a civil 
right, to worship God according to his own con- 
science, without suffering any hardships at the hands 
of his neighbors for so doing." An American writer 
has put it, and that too quite comprehensively, in 
these words : " Soul-freedom is the freedom to think 
and act in religious matters without human dictation 
or control." And Lieber, in his excellent treatise 
on Self-Government (p. 97), expresses the conviction 
that this blessing " ought to be called more properly 
the liberty of worship; for," as he adds in a foot- 



12 THE GREAT CONFLICT 

note, " conscience lies beyond the reach of govern- 
ment. ' Thoughts are free,' is an old German saying. 
The same must be said of feelings and conscience. 
That which government, even the most despotic, can 
alone interfere with, is the profession of religion, 
worship, and church government." 

While all such definitions — and they could be 
multiplied — have a certain value, yet that which 
they seek to analyze and describe is too varied in 
its phases, too diverse in its operations, and too 
wide-reaching in its consequences, for it to be ade- 
quately compassed by them. The practical use they 
are fitted to serve, and for which I have introduced 
them here, is rudely and crudely to give rough 
shape and shadowy outline to the nature and mag- 
nitude of the grand idea to be studied, whose fair 
proportions and moral splendor can only be dis- 
covered by tracing its rise and development in 
history. 

The progress of religious liberty, both as a con- 
ception and a realization, is doubtless due to mani- 
fold agencies ; but I am persuaded that to none other 
is it more indebted than to the Baptists of Europe 
and America. Indeed, I am satisfied that they may 
honestly claim to have occupied the front rank, and 
possibly the very foremost position in the rank, of 
those martyr-souls who toiled and suffered for the 
triumph of this principle. Nor has this claim been 



TRIBUTES TO THE BAPTISTS. 13 

regarded as altogether worthless by many outside of 
their communion. It has been recognized by candid 
scholars, whose opinions upon such subjects are of 
the greatest weight and value. 

Bossuet, at the cl&se of the seventeenth century, 
declared that he knew only two bodies who denied 
the right of the civil magistrate to punish religious 
error, and they were the Socinians and the Ana- 
Baptists. With evident reluctance, Lecky, the 
rationalist, reproduces this testimony, seeking to 
break its force in a foot-note, where he identifies the 
Anabaptists with the fanatical portion of the men 
of Minister. The celebrated John Locke was more 
ingenuous ; for, when Lord Chancellor King sought 
to crown him as the author of religious freedom, he 
proclaimed in the face of all England that " the 
Baptists were the first and only propounders of 
absolute liberty, — just and true liberty, equal and 
impartial liberty." The German philosopher Gervi- 
nus, in his Introduction to the History of the Nine- 
teenth Century, does not hesitate, when discussing 
the peculiar doctrines set forth by Roger Williams, 
to say, " Here in a little state the fundamental prin- 
ciples of political and ecclesiastical libertj 7 " practically 
prevailed before they were even taught in any of 
the schools of philosophy in Europe." And Judge 
Story thus refers to this early Baptist settlement : 
" In the code of laws established by them in Rhode 



14 THE GREAT CONFLICT. 

Island, we read, for the first time since Christianity 
ascended the throne of the CsBsars, the declaration 
that conscience should be free, and men should not 
be punished for worshipping God in the way they 
were persuaded he requires." 

The devotion of this denomination of Christians 
to this glorious doctrine has been set forth recently, 
in no measured terms, by Herbert S. Skeats, who 
in his History of the Free Churches of England Qp. 
24), testifies: "It is the singular and distinguished 
honor of the Baptists, to have repudiated from their 
earliest history all coercive power over the con- 
sciences and the actions of men with reference to 
religion. No sentence is to be found in all their 
writings inconsistent with these principles of Chris- 
tian liberty and willinghood which are now equally 
dear to all the free Congregational Churches of Eng- 
land. They were the proto-evangelists of the volun- 
tary principle." And in a foot-note he adds, " The 
author of this is not connected with the Baptist 
denomination, and has therefore, perhaps, greater 
pleasure in bearing this testimony to undoubted 
historical fact." To all of which our national 
annalist, Bancroft, sets his seal in the now familiar 
words, " Freedom of conscience, unlimited freedom 
of mind, was, from the first, the trophy of the 
Baptists." 

To not a few, doubtless, these concessions in the 



BAPTIST BIGOTRY. 15 

form of tributes will prove a genuine surprise, and 
may appear altogether inexplicable, as they have 
never dreamed of this sect sustaining a distinctive 
and conspicuous relation to any world-wide move- 
ment involving, as this does, the greatest breadth 
and liberality of judgment. No wonder they should 
be perplexed by these testimonies ; for have they 
not been taught on every side that Baptists are 
the most intolerant and bigoted of all the Lord's 
followers? have they not heard repeatedly that 
they are close-communists, exclusionists, fertile only 
in the fruits of uncharitableness, disfellowshipping 
from Christianity every disciple who differs from 
them even on minutest points of ceremony ? Nay, 
have they not read in newspapers, over and over 
again, mysterious hints and dark insinuations con- 
cerning " Star Chambers," " Courts of High Com- 
mission," and of " Unholy Inquisitions," which 
these Baptists have established in unknown regions, 
where proscription runs riot, to the ecclesiastical 
detriment and social annoyance of the more liberal- 
minded of their own order? 

Beyond question, such are the representations 
very frequently made by pulpit and press, regarding 
the spirit governing this influential body of disciples. 
It is, therefore, no more than natural, that some 
of my readers should be perplexed by the admissions 
quoted from the writings of distinguished parties on 



16 THE GREAT CONFLICT. 

the other side. Not looking for such counter state- 
ments, they must find it difficult to reconcile them 
with the received impressions, and the more widely 
circulated charges. 

Prejudice is not easily overcome. It is a poison- 
root of sturdy growth, and few men possess the 
moral nerve to undertake its destruction. They 
greedily drink in rumors injurious to those from 
whom they differ, but will hardly take any pains to 
ascertain their justness, especially if, as in this case, 
investigation leads them from the beaten paths of 
information. The ordinary histories within the 
reach of every man, are measurably silent on such 
themes. Their pages make but slight allusion to 
the Baptists, and far less to their alleged devotion 
to the sacred cause of liberty. The stately Gibbon 
never condescends to speak of them; the majestic 
volumes of Hume and Macaulay are equally indiffer- 
ent to their claims; and even the most popular 
ecclesiastical writers, as D'Aubigne, refer to them in 
the meagrest terms conceivable. This is to be 
regretted, but it is not very extraordinary. Church 
and national historians, after all, are but men ; and, 
while they may not yield to extreme partisanship, 
they are strongly tempted to color their narrative, 
to conveniently omit important facts, and to deal ex- 
clusively with events most palatable to their readers. 
They are aware that, the public taste craves the 



INJUSTICE TO MARTYRS. 17 

record of blood-stained banners, the achievements of 
barbaric princes, the splendors of monarchs, and the 
ambitions of priests, in preference to the gloomy 
annals of humble confessors, who toiled, suffered, 
and died for an idea. They consequently cater to 
the reigning appetite, and, in providing what will 
prove attractive to their readers, magnify the glar- 
ing and meretricious at the expense of the unobtru- 
sive and the genuine. The poet has recognized thi^ 
tendency : writing of the martyrs he says, — 

' ' With their names 
No bard embalms and sanctifies his song; 
And history, so warm on meaner themes, 
Is cold on this. She execrates indeed 
The tyranny that doomed them to the fire, 
But gives the glorious sufferers little praise.' 9 

They who would rise superior to prejudice, who 
would not willingly calumniate their fellow-Chris- 
tians, nor accept without sufficient evidence the 
eulogies which mere generousness may have pro- 
nounced, must be prepared to interrogate authorities 
other than the authors of popular histories, must 
make proper allowances for the bitterness of ene- 
mies, and must diligently acquaint themselves with 
the prevailing sentiments of those regarding whose 
position they would form a candid and honest judg- 
ment. 



18 THE GREAT CONFLICT, 

For such inquirers, especially, have these pages 
been prepared. That the failure to honor the ances- 
tors of a worthy brotherhood may in some degree be 
remedied, that the misapprehensions of contempo- 
raries concerning their descendants may be rectified, 
and that the enthusiasm of all in behalf of soul- 
emancipation may be informed and intensified, — the 
author of this work invites his readers to consider 

THE RELATION OF BAPTISTS TO THE RISE AND 
PROGRESS OF RELIGIOUS LIBERTY. 

The principle of coercion in the affairs of the 
soul, was very generally recognized with approval 
from the time that the professed Christian Church 
obtained civil power under Constantine. Before 
this period, the ministers of Christ, as a rule, were 
in favor of absolute and complete toleration. This 
was the case with Tertullian during the Pagan per- 
secution, and with Hilary of Poitiers during the 
Arian. Whitby, has given a full statement of 
passages from the fathers in support of the liberal 
view, mentioning one conspicuous instance of faith- 
fulness to its teachings, which deserves to be noted 
here. 

Lactantius, in the reign of Constantine, asserted 
the iniquity of persecution quite as strongly as any 
previous writer ; this was very creditable to him, 
as he was tutor to the son of the emperor, and, con- 



BEGINNINGS OF PERSECUTION. 19 

sequently, peculiarly tempted to overlook the abuse 
of regal power. In vain, however, did the mildness 
of his spirit plead for freedom of conscience ; his 
imperial master, ever more Pagan than Christian, 
sought to crush out all opinions contrary to those 
.held by the dominant religious party. He con- 
demned to the flames any Jew who threw stones at 
a Christian convert, and rendered it a penal offence 
for one of the latter class to become a Jew. Against 
the Arian and Donatist heretics his measures were 
equally unscrupulous and energetic. Their assem- 
blies were forbidden, their churches were destroyed, 
their bishops banished, and their writings condemned 
to the flames. From this beginning, the coercive 
policy attained complete ascendency in the councils 
of that ecclesiastical order which gradually developed 
into the Papacy, and, in the coming centuries, shed 
more innocent blood than flowed during the Ten 
Persecutions waged by the Paganism it supplanted. 

It is impossible now to form a complete conception 
of the multitude of its victims, and no powers of 
imagination can ever fully realize their sufferings. 
Llorente, at one time secretary to the Inquisition, 
and, because of his access to all the secret papers of 
that tribunal, the highest authority on the subject, 
assures us, that by the Spanish branch alone more 
than 31,000 persons were burnt, and more than 
290,000 condemned to punishments less severe than 



20 THE GREAT CONFLICT. 

« 

death. The number of those who were slain in the 
Netherlands for their religion, in the reign of Charles 
V., has been estimated by a very high authority 
at 50,000; Grotius says 100,000. Motley, in his 
Rise of the Dutch Republic, writes, " Upon the 
15th of February, 1568, a sentence of the Holy 
Office condemned all the inhabitants of the Nether- 
lands to death as heretics. From this universal 
doom, only a few persons especially named were 
excepted. A proclamation of the king, dated ten 
clays later, confirmed this decree of the Inquisition, 
and ordered it to be carried into immediate execu- 
tion. . . . Three millions of people — men, women, 
and children — were sentenced to the scaffold in 
three lines." And these are but memorable instances, 
and of these only a few, which do not include the 
innumerable and less conspicuous executions that 
have taken place wherever this sum of all abomina- 
tions, Ultramontanism, has reigned supreme in the 
councils of the State. 

Yet in our times, the author of these atrocities — 
atrocities perpetrated with most solemn deliberation 
— has been claimed as the champion of spiritual 
freedom, to whom the world is indebted for its 
conservation and triumph. 

I confess, that I have no words whereby fitly to 
characterize this unparalleled, and unwarranted as- 
sumption. Not only is it opposed to the history of 



PAPAL INTOLERANCE. 21 

this body, but it is utterly at variance with the 
enunciations of more than one of its infallible heads. 
Pope Gregory XVI., in his Encyclical letter of 1832, 
denounces as " a most pestilent error, as the ravings 
of delirium, the opinion that for every one what- 
ever is to be claimed and defended the liberty of 
conscience." In 1864 Pius IX. issued his Encyclical 
letter and famous Syllabus, in the former of which 
he says : " That liberty of conscience and of worship 
is the right of every man," is an erroneous opinion, 
" most pernicious to the Catholic Church and to 
the salvation of souls ; " and in Article XXIV. of 
the latter document, the denial to the Church of 
authority to avail herself of any force, or of any 
direct or indirect temporal power to extend her faith 
is similarly denounced. 

That these declarations are not exceptional exhi- 
bitions of narrowness and intolerance, The New 
York Tablet, a prominent Catholic organ, gives 
frequent and striking proof. From many statements 
which have appeared in its columns, I select the 
following from one of its November issues (1876), 
clearly indicating that the spirit of the popes is very 
generally the spirit of their people : — 

" The Church [of Rome] proclaims trumpet- 
tongued through the lands that belief in what she 
teaches is a duty obligatory on every human being 
who hears it, and that not to believe it is a capital 



22 THE GREAT CONFLICT. 

crime, bringing down on the unbeliever the eternal 
wrath of God. . . . 

" The Church is charged with intolerance because 
she asserts that what she teaches is not at all a 
matter of opinion ; that no one is permitted to have 
any opinion about it ; that what she teaches is the 
truth once delivered to the saints, of which she has 
been the divinely informed depositary ever since 
Christ went up to heaven ; that what it was then it 
is now; that no one, from the pope to the humblest 
peasant, is permitted to question it or to cavil ; that 
all are bound, under pain of terrific penalties, to 
receive exactly what she teaches as to obligatory 
dogma, and nothing else ; and that whoever, of set 
purpose and wilfully, refuses to believe it, incurs 
the punishment of hell." 

Yet, in the face of such utterances as these, Arch- 
bishop Hughes had the audacity to represent the 
Papacy as enamoured of religious liberty, and, in 
the person of Lord Baltimore, to have been the first 
to establish it upon this continent. Many zealous 
Catholics have been carried away by this assumption, 
and not a few thoughtless Protestants have been 
misled by it. Now, I am far from desiring to rob 
the Romish Church of any honors she may have won 
in this glorious enterprise, neither would I deal 
unjustly with the memory of Lord Baltimore ; but I 
am satisfied that neither one nor the other of these 



THE MARYLAND CHARTER. 23 

parties ever did what the learned archbishop claimed. 
Doubtless the founder of Maryland was a nobleman 
of liberal tendencies, as others of his communion 
have been ; but he neither enunciated nor established 
the true doctrine of soul-liberty. 

This can very readily be made out by examining 
the facts in the case. Lord Baltimore wished to 
provide a refuge in America for persecuted Roman- 
ists ; but as no charter could be obtained from an 
Episcopal home government, which contemplated the 
exclusion of Protestants, the only available method 
by which his desire could be realized was by the 
adoption of a clause assuring toleration to all Chris- 
tians. This clause was incorporated in the charter ; 
but it meant only toleration, and nothing broader. 
It provided that " blasphemy against God, denying 
our Saviour Jesus Christ to be the Son of God, or 
denying the holy Trinity, or the Godhead of the 
three persons," should be punished " with death, and 
confiscation of lands and goods to the Lord Proprie- 
tary." Under this law persons using any reproach- 
ful word or speech concerning "the blessed Virgin, 
or the holy apostles or evangelists, were to be fined, 
whipped, or imprisoned, according to the frequency 
and malignancy of the offence." 

Of course, these provisions afforded no protection 
to Unitarians or infidels. These classes of thinkers 
on religious subjects were forbidden to harbor their 



24 THE GREAT CONFLICT. 

theories, and the expression of them was at their 
peril. The so-called orthodox were fostered: they 
could in safety proclaim their convictions ; but the 
civil authorities muzzled like mad dogs those who 
differed from them, and made honest doubt a crime 
before the law. This is not liberty ; this is not 
that sacred right which every manly nature feels is 
his inalienably. This is but meagre, narrow tolera- 
tion ; and its seeming graciousness is disfigured by 
the evident selfishness from which it sprang. Sifted 
down to its underlying motive, it was merely a 
Catholic expedient to secure for itself a place of 
safety within the pale of a Protestant government; 
it contemplated only the absolute freedom of Catho- 
lic worshippers, not that of the race at large. 

In contrast with this, how singularly liberal does 
the organic law of Rhode Island appear upon this 
subject ! Thirteen years before the Maryland tolera- 
tion clause became a law, the charter of this New 
England colony provided " that no person within 
the said colony at any time hereafter shall be in 
any wise molested, punished, disquieted, or called 
in question, for any difference of opinion in matters 
of religion ; but that all and every person and 
persons, from time to time, and at all times here- 
after, freely and fully have and enjoy his and their 
judgment and consciences in matters of religious 



COUNTER CHARGES. 25 

If this is the true conception of soul-liberty, — 
and in our day every American citizen will admit 
that it is, — then that which Lord Baltimore pro- 
claimed was something lower, if not something 
entirely different. Still we are prepared to recog- 
nize and commend the measure of liberality which 
the Maryland statesman displayed ; and this is what 
his own church has never done, save in countries 
like ours, where her persecuting proclivities are at 
the same time restrained by the law, and condemned 
by an overwhelming majority of citizens. 

It is not uncommon, when Papal intolerance is 
exposed, for recrimination to advance to the rescue. 
" If we have believed in and practiced coercion 
in matters of conscience," its upholders exclaim, 
" we have not been alone ; for the Protestant party 
has held most strenuously the same principle, and 
has acted upon it in many cruel ways." The 
accusation is not without foundation ; for, as a 
learned antiquarian writer has said, " There is not a 
confession of faith, nor a creed framed by eaij of 
the Reformers, which does not give to the magistrate 
coercive power in religion." — Unclerhill, "Strug- 
gles and Triumphs" p. 87. Referring to these 
mighty men, The Edinburgh Review for Septem- 
ber, 1816, vol. xxvii., declares that they did not 
maintain the right of private judgment. The editor 
cites the cases of Servetus in Geneva, and Joan 



26 THE GREAT CONFLICT. 

Bocher in England, as illustrations of his allegation. 
He also reminds us that by act of parliament, 1560, 
in Scotland, those who attended mass were con- 
demned to banishment or death ; and that when 
Maitland of Lethington, in 1564, who was then sec- 
retary of state, with several noblemen invited the 
most distinguished foreign divines to a conference 
on Queen Mary's popish practices, John Knox ex- 
pressed the opinion that the Lord's people should 
put to death all such idolaters. 

I have no pleasure in recalling these facts ; but it 
is not only due the Catholics that the historic accu- 
racy of their charge be admitted: it is also due the 
Baptists, that it be distinctly shown that with the 
Protestant leaders the doctrine of soul-liberty did 
not originate. The Reformation was but the dawn- 
ing of a better day. Through its clouds only the 
morning of freedom faintly broke, and many weary 
years elapsed before it dispersed the mists of tyranny 
which veiled the race in sombre gloom. It professed 
principles — such as the supremacy of Scripture and 
the right of judgment — which in the course of 
time, when their logical bearing was apprehended, 
enlisted its followers in support of religious liberty, 
and constrained them to sacrifice ease, property, and 
life for its establishment. Ultimately they made 
common cause with the Baptists in waging deter- 
mined warfare against every phase of spiritual 



GUIZOT AND THE REFORMERS. 27 

tyranny; and, having shared with them in the bloody 
cost, they now rejoice with them in the victory as 
far as it has been won. It is not for me to ignore 
their services, or detract from their value, and I have 
no idea of doing either ; but at a time when the 
descendants of the Reformers, Puritans, and Pilgrims 
are serenely claiming for their ancestors nearly all 
the credit which attaches to the origin and success 
of this movement, I may be excused for showing 
that they claim far more than can be proved. 

By consulting Guizot's History of Civilization 
(vol. i. pp. 262, 263), it will be seen that there is 
reliable and impartial authority for this statement 
of the case. From his pages, for the benefit of 
reader, the following extracts are made: — 

" The emancipation of the human mind, in the 
course of the Reformation, was a fact rather than a 
principle, a result rather than an intention. The 
Reformation, I believe, has in this respect performed 
more than it undertook, — more, probably, than it 
desired. Contrary to what has happened in many 
other revolutions, the effects of which have not 
come up to their design, the consequences of the 
Reformation have gone beyond the object it had in 
view. It is greater, considered as an event, than as 
a system. It has never completely known all that it 
has done ; nor, if it had, would it have completely 
avowed it. 



28 THE GREAT CONFLICT. 

"What are the reproaches constantly applied to 
the Reformation by its enemies ? which of its results 
are thrown in its face, as it were, as unanswerable ? 

" The two principal reproaches are, first, the mul- 
tiplicity of sects, the excessive license of thought, 
the destruction of all spiritual authority, and the 
entire dissolution of religious societ}~; secondly, 
tyranny and persecution. 4 You provoke licentious- 
ness,' it has been said to the reformers : ' you pro- 
duced it ; and, after having been the cause of it, you 
wish to restrain and repress it. And how do you 
repress it ? By the most harsh and violent means. 
You take upon yourselves, too, to punish heresy, 
and that by virtue of an illegitimate authority.' 

"If we take a review of all the principal charges 
which have been made against the Reformation, we 
shall find, if we set aside all questions purely doc- 
trinal, that the above are the two fundamental re- 
proaches to which they may all be reduced. 

" These charges gave great embarrassment to the 
reform party. When they were taxed with the 
multiplicity of their sects, instead of advocating 
the freedom of religious opinion, and maintaining 
the right of every sect to entire toleration, they 
denounced sectarianism, lamented it, and endeavored 
to find excuses for its existence. Were they accused 
of persecution? They were troubled to defend 
themselves : they used the plea of necessity ; they 



THE REFORMATION AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY. 29 

had, they said, the right to repress and punish error, 
because they were in possession of the truth. Their 
articles of belief, they contended, and their institu- 
tions, were the only legitimate ones ; and, if the 
Church of Rome had not the right to punish the 
reformed party, it was because she was in the wrong 
and they in the right. 

" And when the charge of persecution was applied 
to the ruling party in the Reformation, not by its 
enemies, but by its own offspring ; when the sects 
denounced by that party said, ' W'e are doing just 
what you did : we separate ourselves from you just 
as you separated yourselves from the Church of 
Rome,' — this ruling party were still more at a loss 
to find an answer ; and frequently the only answer 
they had to give was an increase of severity. 

" The truth is, that, while laboring for the destruc- 
tion of absolute power in the spiritual order, the 
religious revolution of the sixteenth century was not 
aware of the true principles of intellectual liberty. 
It emancipated the human mind, and yet pretended 
still to govern it by laws. In point of fact it pro- 
duced the prevalence of free inquiry : in point of 
principle it believed that it was substituting a legiti- 
mate for an illegitimate power. It had not looked 
up to the primary motive, nor down to the ultimate 
consequences, of its own work. It thus fell into a 
double error. On the one side it did not know or 



30 THE GREAT CONFLICT. 

respect all the rights of human thought : at the very 
moment that it was demanding these rights for itself, 
it was violating them towards others. On the other 
side it was unable to estimate the rights of authority 
in matters of reason." 

Prof. Goldwin Smith has penned some admirable 
passages on this subject (Modem History, vol. i. 
p. 266), which confirm the representations of M. 
Guizot ; and a few specific illustrations will remove 
all doubt from the candid mind as to the historic 
accuracy of both writers. 

Martin Luther seems to have had no just notions 
of the relations of civil government to religion. He 
held that magistrates should maintain order by the 
regulation even of the externals of worship ; and 
to this day his followers maintain the same perni- 
cious doctrine. In Germany there is still a grand 
court charged with the judicial management of all 
the ecclesiastical affairs of the empire. A letter 
from Luther to Menius and Myconius, 1530, con- 
tains these words: "I am pleased that you intend 
to publish a book against the Anabaptists as soon as 
possible. Since they are not only blasphemous but 
also seditious men, let the sword exercise its rights 
over them ; for this is the will of God, that he shall 
have judgment who resisteth the power." — Dr. 
Sears's Life of Luther. 



JOHN CALVIN AND CALVINISM. 31 

The reformation in Switzerland was contempora- 
neous with, but independent of, the movement in 
Germany. Its great leader, Zwingle, invoked the 
authority of the State in behalf of the Church. The 
law of Zurich (1530) decrees death to Baptists ; and 
the gentle Melanchthon, in a letter to the Diet of Ham- 
burg (1537), advocated the same proscriptive policy. 

Among those who have acquired unenviable dis- 
tinction for spiritual despotism, none is more con- 
spicuous in history than Calvin. " Godly princes," 
he wrote, " may lawfully issue edicts for compelling 
obstinate and rebellious persons to worship the true 
God, and to maintain the unity of the faith." 
With his consent, Michael Servetus was executed ; 
for Calvin had declared regarding him, " If he 
comes to Geneva, and my authority avails any 
thing, I will never suffer him to go away alive." — 
Letters, vol. ii. 19. Verily, as Dr. Tulloch has 
said, " It was a hard and bad world that needed 
Calvin for a reformer." 

Presbyterianism was not at first less intolerant 
than its founder. The Edinburgh Convention, 
which framed the articles of Church Polity, declared 
certain ecclesiastical offenders worthy of death. 
They proclaimed that the observance of certain 
feasts and fasts, Christmas, Epiphany, &c, " ought 
not to escape the punishment of the civil magis- 
trate." Well might Milton utter his famous sar- 



32 THE GREAT CONFLICT. 

casm in the face of such tyranny, " New presbyter 
is but old priest writ large ; " well might it be 
repeated again and again when such a man as 
Baxter could exclaim, " I abhor unlimited liberty 
and toleration of all," and when so godly a divine 
as Owen, in his essay appended to a sermon preached 
before Parliament, 1646, could express the opinion 
that " toleration would prove exceedingly pernicious 
to all sorts of men." 

These sentiments prevailed in the Westminster 
Assembly ; and, accordingly, the Confession of Faith 
contained an explicit avowal of the duty of the civil 
magistrate to suppress heresy. Moreover, the Pres- 
byterians constantly labored to thwart the measures 
of Cromwell in the direction of greater liberty of 
conscience. They desired that those only should 
be tolerated who accepted the fundamentals of 
Christianity ; and they drew up such a list of these 
fundamentals, that nearly every sect but themselves 
was amenable to the searching discipline they 
proposed. A fall description of them is given in 
Neal's History of the Puritans, where it will be 
seen that they condemned Popish, Arminian, Anti- 
nomian, Baptist, and Quaker doctrines. 

Of the Church of England, with "her Popish 
liturgy and Genevan creed," little need be said. 
She originated by law in 1527 ; and the Judicial 
Committee of the Privy Council was appointed her 



THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 33 

supreme tribunal, by whom all questions relating 
to the true and legal construction of doctrines and 
formularies must finally be judged. Such an estab- 
lishment could not but abound in injustice and per- 
secution. The statute-books of England have been 
sadly burdened with tyrannical decrees, penal codes, 
conventicle acts, corporation acts, test acts, five-mile 
acts ; and the people have suffered from their 
enforcement at the hands of Star Chambers, and 
Courts of High Commission. The bosom of this 
English politico-ecclesiastical institution has nour- 
ished such monsters as Laud, who was promoted 
step by step in episcopal office, till in 1633 he was 
consecrated Archbishop of Canterbury, — made the 
primate and the representative man of the hierarchy. 
To such men, liberty could only be an unknown 
quality; and from them, every concession towards its 
establishment could only be won by blood and tears. 
Hallam says, the Toleration Act of William and 
Mary, which was simply the just recognition of the 
right of public worship beyond the pale of the State 
Church, was passed, " not without murmurs of big- 
oted churchmen." And, every victory since then 
achieved in England, has been Avon in the face of 
clerical opposition. The emancipation of the Cath- 
olics from political disabilities on account of their 
religious views, the enfranchisement of the Jews, as 
well as the disestablishment of the Episcopal Church 



34 THE GREAT CONFLICT. 

in Ireland, have only been effected by the persistent 
efforts of jbhose who had neither part nor lot in the 
hierarchy. Even, the recent ridiculous controversies 
on what is known as the Burial Bill, and on the right 
of Dissenting ministers to be called by the honorary 
title of " Reverend," and to have it inscribed upon 
their humble tombstones, show how difficult it is to 
charm to sleep the spirit of intolerance in the bosoms 
of the British clergy. Deprived of power to inflict 
the halter or the fagot, persecution still breathes 
venom from their lips, and indirectly tries to blast 
what it cannot openly destroy. 

The Independents and the Congregationalists have 
certainly, in many respects, a fairer record than the 
English Church ; but they are not entitled to the 
encomium of Lord King, that with them originated 
the true notion of religious liberty. We who 
inhabit these shores, and who are indebted to them 
for very many of the blessings we enjoy to-day, 
have fallen into the amiable habit of regarding Pil- 
grims and Puritans as fleeing from Europe to this 
wilderness, for the purpose of securing to all men 
absolute freedom of conscience. Statements of this 
kind have found their way into speeches delivered 
on Forefathers' Day, into sermons and poetry, where 
sentiment is often more popular than fact, until the 
people very generally believe them. There never 
was, however, an impression more erroneous. These 



PILGRIM FATHERS, 35 

men, whom we justly venerate for their many noble 
virtues, were far from sympathizing with a doctrine, 
which, recognizing the accountability of the soul to 
God, would have every man left free of earthly 
magistrates in shaping his religious course. 

In proof of this statement, permit me to quote a 
passage from the writings of Mr. John Robinson, the 
father of the band of exiles, "who for their religion 
first sought refuge in Holland, and afterwards in 
America. He declared that the civil magistrate 
"niay alter, devise, or establish nothing in religion 
otherwise than Christ hath appointed ; " but he may 
use u his lawful power lawfully for the furtherance 
of Christ's kingdom and laws. The prophet Isaiah, 
speaking of the Church of Christ, foretells that 
kings shall be her nursing fathers, and queens her 
nursing mothers; which, if they meddle not with 
her, how can they be?" Lecky, while making a 
special plea for the English Independents, admits 
that their theory of toleration, by which they 
expressed their sympathy with Cromwell's views, 
stopped short of Popery and Prelacy ; that is, it 
excluded Romanism and Episcopacy. — Rationalism 
in Europe, p. 78, vol. ii. Indeed, there is every 
reason to believe that it originated mainly in their 
anxiety to secure for themselves a standing of safety 
before the law. That they were actuated by no intel- 
ligent and broad desire to establish the right of every 



36 THE GREAT CONFLICT. 

man, whether Christian or Infidel, Protestant or 
Papist, Jew or Turk, to enjoy, unmolested by the 
civil authorities, his convictions on the subject of 
religion, is abundantly proved by the whole tenor 
of their history in America. 

The fathers of New England did not cross the 
stormy Atlantic to found a state on fundamental 
principles, but to obtain for themselves and children 
a free field for their own ideas of church reform. 
They were good men ; better men never lived : the 
sifted seed were they, taken from the Old World 
wherewith to plant the New. But they were the 
product of the sixteenth century, not the nineteenth. 
They were intense believers ; and they believed in 
nothing more intensely than the union of the Church 
with the State. 

The Rev. John Norton, in the Election Sermon 
of 1661, said that they came to live in this wilderness 
" under the order of the gospel ; that our polity may 
be a gospel polity, and may be complete according to 
the Scriptures, answering fully the word of God." 
Higginson of Salem in his Election Discourse, 1663, 
stated the point thus fully : " It concerneth New 
England always to remember that they are originally 
a plantation religious, not a plantation of trade. The 
profession of the purity of doctrine, worship, and 
discipline is written upon her forehead." In 1677 
Rev. Increase M.athpr, ancl in 1783 Pres. Stiles of 



CHURCH AND STATE IN NEW ENGLAND. 37 

Yale College, proclaimed substantially the same senti- 
ments as distinguishing the primitive settlers of New 
England. In the spring of 1631, the first year after 
the founding of Boston, the General Court " ordered 
and agreed, that, for the time to come, no man shall 
be admitted to the freedom of this body politic but 
such as are members of some of the churches within 
the limits of the same." It was Dudley, the second 
governor of Massachusetts, successor of the noble 
Winthrop, who wrote the well-known lines, as 
execrable in poetry as in sentiment : — 

" Let men of God in courts and churches watch 
O'er such as do a toleration hatch.' ' 

In 1644 the General Court enacted: "If any 
Christian shall openly condemn the baptism of 
infants, or shall purposely depart the congregation 
at the administration of the ordinance, . . . con- 
tinuing obstinate therein, he shall be sentenced to 
banishment." Says the Cambridge Platform of 
1649, " If any church, one or more, shall grow 
schismatical, rending itself from the communion of 
other churches, ... in such case a magistrate is 
to put forth his coercive power as the matter shall 
require." And Cotton Mather, who did more than 
any other man to shape the ecclesiastical polity of 
Massachusetts, deliberately expressed the view, that 
" it cannot be truly said that the Lord Jesus never 



38 THE GREAT CONFLICT. 

appointed the civil sword for a remedy in such 
cases, for he did expressly appoint it in the Old 
Testament ; nor did he abrogate it in the New 
Testament." Having quoted Deut. xiii. 19, he pro- 
ceeds, " The reason is moral, therefore of perpetual 
equity, to put to death the apostate, seducing idola- 
ter, or heretic, who seeketh to thrust away the 
people from the Lord their God." — Answer to 
Williams : see his Bloody Tenet. Said Rev. James 
Noyes of Newbury (1661), " Magistrates have a just 
power to use the sword in their hands against any 
persons, for the good of the Church and the glory 
of Christ's kingdom." Yea, the great John Cotton 
declared, that " it was toleration that made the world 
anti - Christian, and that the Church never took 
hurt by the punishment of heretics." 

Dr. George E. Ellis has stated {Lowell Lectures 
by Members of Massachusetts Historical Society, p. 
84), with admirable precision, the real position of 
the fathers of New England upon this subject. 
Referring to liberty of conscience, he says, " Our 
fathers were fully informed as to what it was, what 
it meant ; and they were familiar with such results 
as it wrought in their day. They knew it well, and 
what must come of it ; and they did not like it : 
rather they feared and hated it. They did not mean 
to live where it was indulged ; and, in the full 
exercise of their intelligence and prudence, they 



NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW. 39 

resolved not to tolerate it among them." The 
North American Revieiv, in a recent favorable 
notice of " Dexter's Roger Williams," not only 
agrees with Dr. Ellis, and with all the testimony 
previously adduced, but attempts a justification of 
Puritan proscriptiveness, which, though I regard it 
as bad mending of a bad cause, I give to my readers, 
that they may judge for themselves the soundness of 
the plea put forth in its defence : — 

" The Puritans have been blamed because people 
have not stopped to consider their real aims and the 
conditions of their existence, because they have not 
tried to put themselves in their place. The Puritans 
acquired their land not merely by royal patent, but 
by the abandonment of home, of civilization, and of 
eyery comfort. In a place so dearly bought, they 
had an inalienable right to do as they pleased ; and 
it pleased them to try a great political experiment. 
They had entered into the land, and possessed it ; 
and there in the wilderness they founded a Puritan 
state, the asylum for men of their race and religion. 
In their new country it further pleased them to 
make Church and State one ; and they believed that 
whoever touched one touched the other, and there- 
fore they defended both with all their strength. 
They did not come to the barren shores of Massa- 
chusetts Bay to obtain for every papist, fanatic, and 



40 THE GREAT CONFLICT. 

heretic, freedom to worship God after his fashion : 
they sought freedom to worship God after their own 
fashion. Whoever interfered with them, or threat- 
ened the existence of their government by attacks 
on Church or State, whether it was Charles the First 
or Roger Williams, they resisted to the uttermost ; 
and, if they had the power, punished the assailant 
by exile and sometimes by death. By every law of 
self-preservation, by every law of common sense 
and common prudence, and with all justice in so 
doing, they acted strongly and well. No doubt their 
judgment often erred, for they were human and 
fallible. No doubt they were often harsh and nar- 
row-minded if tried by our standards, or by the 
standards of such contemporaries as Francis Bacon 
or John Selden. Yet it is folly and weakness to 
make apologies for them, for they need none. The 
Puritans of Massachusetts acted according to their 
best lights ; and they acted like wise, brave men. 
They built up a strong, enduring state, the corner- 
stone of a great nation. All these men need is the 
exact and severe justice of history ; and sooner or 
later the judgment of history must become the 
verdict of mankind." 

The practice of these men was thoroughly con- 
sistent with their principles. Their characters were 
too ruggedly sincere, their conscience too morbidly 



PERSECUTED BAPTISTS. 41 

sensitive, for them to hesitate one moment in main- 
taining at every cost their honest convictions. 
Hence it was, that the Baptists, who had been 
ground beneath the heel of spiritual tyranny in the 
Old World, found waiting them in the New, whither 
they had fled for refuge, nothing but fines, im- 
prisonments, scourgings, confiscations, and banish- 
ments. Many scenes occurred in the early history 
of the colonies, which were stained with injustice, 
cruelty, and blood. Roger Williams was driven from 
his home into the wilderness, from the savageness 
of Christians to the Christianity of savages ; Oba- 
diah Holmes was stripped of his clothes, and in 
Boston was publicly whipped, a three-corded scourge 
dashing the gore from his quivering flesh ; while 
John Hazel and John Spur, for words of sympathy 
spoken to the sufferer, were arrested, fined forty 
shillings, and imprisoned, — and all because they 
would not conform to the Standing Order. 

From 1723 to 1733, twenty-eight Baptists were 
imprisoned at Bristol ; and in the same century, 
according to Winthrop's journal, a poor man by the 
name of Painter was barbarously flogged like a 
common felon, because he refused to bring his child 
to be sprinkled. William Clark, for the same 
offence in 1651, was sentenced to pay twenty 
pounds, or be whipped; while Pres. Dunster, the 
learned chief of Harvard College, was fined and 



42 THE GREAT CONFLICT. 

driven from his office because he held to and 
expressed Baptist sentiments. In 1665 the leading 
members of this denomination in Charlestown, 
Mass., were brought before the Court, and were 
disfranchised ; and in 1680 the doors of the First 
Baptist Church at Boston were nailed up by the 
marshal, and services prohibited. 

But these are only a few instances of the wide- 
spread calamities, which were inflicted upon our sires 
for conscience' sake. No language can reproduce 
the gloom which enshrouded them, nor the malignant 
intolerance which sought to exterminate them. They 
ate their bread in fear ; in the morning they wished 
it were evening, and in the evening they wished it 
were morning. Robbed, beaten, cursed, despised, 
driven from their homes, separated from their 
families, treated as the offscouring of the earth, — 
what was left them, but to appeal to that God, of 
whom it is written, " Vengeance is mine, I will 
repay, saith the Lord"? — assured that Heat least 
would " avenge His own elect, though he bear long 
with them." 

They needed indeed to look to Him, and to Him 
alone ; for nowhere on this broad continent, where 
the descendants of the Reformation held sway, could 
they find arm to help or heart to sympathize. If 
we turn our sickened eyes from New England, 
it is only to sicken them more terribly by similar 



SUFFERERS IN VIRGINIA. 43 

events in Virginia. When it is remembered that 
the English Church was established by law in that 
colony, the sad condition of dissenters can easily be 
imagined. The intolerant spirit which had made 
her infamous in the Old World, by an unhappy 
species of transmigration appeared in the New. 
Each person staying away from her services was 
fined fifty pounds of tobacco, and two thousand 
pounds of the same article for refusing to have an 
infant christened. Citizens were disfranchised and 
banished, even members of the House of Burgesses 
were expelled from their seats, on account of their 
religious opinions. It is impossible, as it is unneces^ 
sary, to detail the wrongs endured by those who 
could not subscribe to the Thirty-nine Articles. 

Time itself would fail me to tell of the Wallers, the 
Craigs, Childs, Webbers, Weatherfords, Herndons, 
Wares, Pitmans, who " had trial of cruel mockings 
and scourgings, of bonds and imprisonment; " who 
" being destitute, afflicted, tormented, wandered in 
deserts and in mountains, and in dens and in caves 
of the earth, not accepting deliverance." 

Do you ask for what offence, for what crime 
against the majesty of law and the well-being of 
humanity, these humble men were shamed and 
punished ; held forth, as it were, a spectacle of 
ignominy to the universe ? Do jon ask ? Then 
follow me through a century of years, and in that 



44 THE GREAT CONFLICT. 

Virginia Court-House, receive an answer from no 
less a witness than Patrick Henry. 

Three ministers are standing there before the bar 
of justice, indicted as disturbers of the peace. A 
crowd of people throng the room, not to hear alone 
the words of the prosecuting attorney, but to wit- 
ness the action of the great patriot under circum- 
stances so solemn and impressive. Henry takes the 
indictment from the officer of the law, and begins a 
plea which for effective oratory has never been 
surpassed. I will not trust my poor unpracticed 
pen to reproduce his words ; certainly, I could not 
rekindle the fire with which they were charged ; but 
the thrice-reiterated climax of his sublime appeal 
reveals the terrible offence of these poor Baptist 
preachers, and of the entire fraternity North and 
South, who agreed with them in doctrine, and 
shared with them in tribulation : they were guilty 
of no less a crime than that " of preaching the 
gospel of the Son of God." No wonder, after such 
a declaration, that Henry, pausing amidst the most 
profound silence, should wave the indictment thrice 
round his head, and exclaim, " Great God ! " 

Moved by a similar impulse, as I contemplate 
this injustice and bigotry, I cannot refrain from 
expressing my indignation in the solemn cry of 
the enlightened advocate, " Great God ! " For 
preaching the word of life, for conscientiously 



SPECIAL PLEADINGS, 45 

proclaiming what Heaven had commanded them to 
speak, these rugged, faithful men were hounded, 
harried, and crushed by those who had fled with 
them from despotic Europe to the wilds of America 
that they might worship their Creator according to 
their conceptions of his mighty will : Great God ! 

Stranger than these facts by far are the specious 
pleas, which have been put forth by some of the 
descendants of these intolerant churchmen and 
puritans to clear their memory, in this age of 
liberty, of the foul blot that rests upon it. I doubt 
not that these undertakings have been inspired by 
veneration for the virtues, which, unquestionably, 
their ancestors possessed, as well as by an apprehen- 
sion that the denominations of which they were 
members may incur present reproach, unless it can 
be shown that their principles and deeds were 
justifiable. Such motives are honorable enough, if 
honorably pursued ; but they cannot excuse the 
publication of arguments in defence of Congrega- 
tionalist or Churchman, whose historical inaccuracies 
can only be equalled by their historical perversions. 

No body of men can fairly be held responsible for 
the sentiments of their forefathers. Time works 
many changes ; and it may come to pass, that the 
most proscriptive party in the course of years may 
mellow into the most tolerant. On the other hand, 
the offspring of the most devoted champions of 



46 THE GREAT CONFLICT. 

religious freedom may shrink and narrow into the 
most bigoted of bigots. The son of the old Puritan 
may be more charitable than the son of the old 
Baptist. The justice of this thought being very 
generally recognized, there exists no real necessity 
for other than the most candid treatment of the 
errors and failures of those from whom we sprang. 

Nor should it be forgotten, that most likely, in 
the worst ages of oppression, very many persons 
associated with the persecuting church may have 
condemned her course, and have sympathized with 
those who suffered for the sake of conscience. The 
rank and file of any religious party very rarely rise 
or sink to the level of its leaders. Doubtless among 
the early settlers in New England, there were not a 
few loving natures who could weep for the afflic- 
tions of their Baptist brethren ; who, could they 
only have seen their way through the logical 
defences of spiritual despotism, and have felt them- 
selves safe from all its cruelties, would gladly 
have succored the distressed ones, whose crime lay 
in presuming to differ from their rulers. These 
tender but timid and perplexed souls may have had 
fair visions of a happier era, may have prayed for 
its dawning, and secretly m^j have comforted the 
stricken and homeless victims of the " zealot's 
rage." All this is more than probable; and I 
believe it very thoroughly, because the Revolu- 



TEE MONOGRAPH. 47 

tionary period of our history brought to light an 
overwhelming sentiment in favor of absolute reli- 
gious liberty, which must have been maturing and 
spreading in darker times. That it should not have 
been made effective by those who cherished it at an 
earlier period, may fairly be a cause of regret to 
their descendants ; but they should not assume that 
its existence is now unrecognized, or that there is in 
any quarter a purpose to charge the tyranny of the 
comparatively few indiscriminately upon all, and 
that, in consequence, an imperative obligation rests 
upon them to vindicate their ancestors by attempt- 
ing to prove that the persecutors among them were 
not persecutors, that their cruelties were not cruel- 
ties, that their decrees of banishment did not mean 
banishment, and that other feelings than intolerance 
dictated their narrow policy. 

These reflections have been suggested by the care- 
ful study of various works, the principal aim of 
which appears to be the reversal of that judgment 
which posterity has pronounced on those who in 
New England and Virginia exalted the sword of the 
civil magistrate above the authority of conscience. 
Among these, the most important, as being the most 
recent and comprehensive, is the " Monograph " by 
Rev. Henry Martyn Dexter, D.D., which deals with 
" Roger Williams and his Banishment." As the 
Episcopal historian, Dr. Hawks, defends the Vir- 



48 THE GREAT CONFLICT. 

ginia authorities, Dr. Dexter, following in the foot- 
steps of Dr. Palfrey, attempts in his book to palliate 
the conduct of the Massachusetts Court in regard to 
Roger Williams. This somewhat remarkable effort 
has interested not a few persons in our country, and 
has been both favorably and unfavorably reviewed. 
For my own part, I admire the " Monograph " in 
many respects ; but I cannot admit that as a whole 
the performance is equal to the expectation it 
excites. As it illustrates the insufficiency of all 
pleas in extenuation of Puritan proscriptiveness, I 
may be permitted to express very briefly my objec- 
tions to its argument. 

Dr. Dexter undertakes to maintain the thesis, that 
the doctrine of Roger Williams concerning religious 
liberty was not involved in his trial and banish- 
ment by the Massachusetts magistrates. 

The historical soundness of this position I am 
obliged to question ; for while it is doubtless true 
that this was not the sole cause of their proceed- 
ing against him, and may not have been made promi- 
nent before the court, it was clearly implied in 
the charges which resulted in his expulsion from 
the Plantation. 

Dr. Dexter concedes (p. 65) " that it appears from 
Winthrop that in the previous July [previous to 
his trial] Mr. Williams had denied to the court 
the magistrate's power in matters of religion,'' 



TRIAL OF ROGER WILLIAMS. 49 

though " it is not in evidence that that point was 
specifically made in the final trial." Let even this 
be admitted, yet it does not follow that this was not 
one of the motives which inspired the antagonism of 
his enemies. For reasons of their own, they may 
have omitted to make it particularly conspicuous ; 
but that it was not entirely ignored, is proven by the 
sentence pronounced. This runs in the following 
terms : — 

" Whereas Mr. Roger Williams, one of the elders 
of the church of Salem, hath broached & dyvulged 
dyvers newe & dangerous opinions, against the auc- 
thoritie of magistrates, as also writt Ires of defama- 
con, both of the magistrates & churches here, & that 
before any conviccon, & yet mainetaineth the same 
without retraccon, it is therefore ordered, that the 
said Mr. Williams shall depte out of this jurisdiccon 
within sixe weekes nowe nexte ensuing, w ch if hee 
neglect to pforme, it shalbe lawfull for the Gou r & 
two of the magistrates to send him to some places 
out of this jurisdiccon, not to returne any more 
without licence from the Court." 

Then we have Mr. Williams's own statement of 
what the governor said when summing up the 
case : — 

" He stood up and spake : 

" Mr. Williams (said he) holds forth these 4 par- 
ticulars : 



50 THE GREAT CONFLICT. 

" First, That we have not our Land by Pattent 
from the King, but that the Natives are the true 
owners of it, and that we ought to repent of such a 
receiving it by Pattent. 

" Secondly, That it is not lawfull to call a wicked 
person to Sweare, to Pray, as being actions of God's 
worship. 

" Thirdly, That it is not lawfull to heare any of 
the Ministers of the Parish Assemblies in England. 

" Fourthly, That the Civill Magistrates power ex- 
tends only to the Bodies and Goods, and outward 
State of men, etc." 

If this fourth specification means any thing, it 
declares that conscience and the laws of worship are 
beyond the jurisdiction of civil courts. That it was 
understood to have this force, Dr. Dexter himself 
witnesses ; for he states that the opinions of Wil- 
liams awakened the opposition which assailed them, 
because of the foothold they would inevitably give 
the Catholics in New England. But only the recog- 
nition of the principles of religious liberty by the 
government could entail upon the Plantation this 
peril ; and we must, therefore, conclude that it was 
this doctrine which young Williams was propa- 
gating. 

Dr. Dexter reminds us that this troublesome 
agitator, "in one of his communications to Mr. 
Cotton, narrowed down the causes of his ' banish- 



THE TESTIMONY OF WILLIAMS. 51 

ment ' to a single one, and that he declared to be 
1 my humble and faithfull, and constant admonishing 
of them of such unclean walking between a particu- 
lar Church (which they only professe to be Christs) 
and a Nationally " 

But why was it that he carried this principle of 
separatism so far ? Why was he so radical in his 
protest on this point ? Was it not, because a national 
church is necessarily subversive of personal inde- 
pendence in religious concerns ? Its existence is 
synonymous with spiritual usurpation ; and to oppose 
its authority is to proclaim liberty of conscience. 
This testimony is therefore sufficient to prove the 
untenableness of the doctor's position ; in confir- 
mation of which, it may be well to add an extract 
from a letter written by Mr. Williams to Gov. Endi- 
cott, in which he says, — 

"At present, let it not be offensive in your eyes, 
that I single out another, a fourth point, a cause of 
my Banishment also ; wherein I greatly feare one or 
two sad evills, which have befallen your Soule and 
Conscience. 

" The point is that of the Civill Magistrates deal- 
ing in matters of Conscience and Religion ; as also 
of persecuting and hunting any for any matter 
meerly Spirituall and Religious." 

The impression is conveyed by the " Monograph," 
that the teaching and influence of Roger Williams 



52 THE GREAT CONFLICT. 

were altogether revolutionary, and tended towards 
social, civil, and religious disorganization. Its 
learned author brings forward various witnesses to 
convict the man, who was to found Rhode Island, 
of rashness and impetuousness, of a lack of good 
judgment, deliberation, and discretion. Doubtless, 
he was at fault in these particulars. But reformers 
are generally far from being prudent and conserva- 
tive. Indeed, it is questionable whether these quali- 
ties would qualify them for such work as they 
usually undertake. Men do not rise against grievous 
wrongs in cold blood, and, with equanimity per- 
fectly preserved, pursue an exterminating warfare. 
Luther, Calvin, Knox, and the leaders among the 
Puritans in England, were no less radical than 
the Massachusetts reformer. If on this account the 
course of the Plantation authorities is to be leniently 
judged, how shall we condemn the bloody resistance 
of Catholicism to the inroads of Protestantism ? 

That the views of Mr. Williams necessarily tended 
in the direction indicated by Dr. Dexter, is dis- 
proven by the good government which subsequently 
obtained in Rhode Island ; and, that their author 
never intended that they should subvert the legiti- 
mate authority of civil magistrates, may be gathered 
from his own statement of the doctrine he advo- 
cated. This doctrine he explained in January, 
1654-5 (some twenty years after he left Salem), to 



RELIGIOUS LIBERTY AND CIVIL LAW. 53 

his fellow-citizens of Providence, in the following 
words : — 

" That ever I should speak or write a tittle that 
tends to such an infinite liberty of conscience [as 
that it is blood-guiltiness, and contrary to the rule 
of the gospel, to execute judgment upon transgress- 
ors against the public or private weal], is a mistake, 
and which I have ever disclaimed and abhorred. To 
prevent such mistakes, I at present shall only pro- 
pose this' case : — 

" There goes many a ship to sea, with many 
hundred souls in one ship, whose weal and woe is 
common ; and is a true picture of a commonwealth, 
or an human combination, or society. It hath fallen 
out sometimes that both Papists and Protestants, 
Jews and Turks, may be embarked into one ship. 
Upon which supposal, I affirm that all the liberty of 
conscience that ever I pleaded for turns upon these 
two hinges: that none of the Papists, Protestants, 
Jews or Turks, be forced to come to the ship's 
prayers or worship ; nor compelled from their own 
particular prayers or worship if they practice any. 
I further add, that I never denied, that, notwith- 
standing this liberty, the commander of this ship 
ought to command the ship's course ; yea, and also 
command that justice, peace, and sobriety to be kept 
and practiced, both among the seamen and all the 
passengers. If any of the seamen refuse to perform 



54 THE GREAT CONFLICT. 

their service, or passenger to pay their freight; if 
any refuse to help in person or purse, towards the 
common charges or defence ; if any refuse to obey the 
common laws and orders of the ship, concerning their 
common peace or preservation ; if any shall mutiny 
and rise up against their commanders and officers ; if 
any should preach or ivrite that there ought to be no 
commanders nor officers, because all are equal in 
Christ, therefore no masters nor officers, no laws nor 
orders, no corrections nor punishments, — I say, I 
never denied but in such cases, whatever is pre- 
tended, the commander or commanders may judge, 
resist, compel, and punish such transgressors, accord- 
ing to their deserts and merits." 

At a later period, in more literal phrase, he dis- 
tinctly wrote in a paper addressed to the town 
clerk of Providence, of date Jan. 12-25, 1680-1: — 

" Government and order in families, towns, &c, 
is the ordinance of the Most High (Rom. xiii.) for 
the peace and good of mankind. 

" It is written in the hearts of all mankind, even 
in pagans, that mankind cannot keep together 
without some government. 

" No government is maintained without tribute, 
custom, rates, taxes, &c. 

" It is but folly to resist (one or more, and, if one, 
why not more?). God hath stirred up the spirit 
of the governor, magistrates, and officers, driven to 



PAINTER AND HOLMES. 55 

it by necessity, to be unanimously resolved to see 
the matter finished ; and it is the duty of every man 
to maintain, encourage, and strengthen the hand of 
authority*" 

If these extracts reflect the real sentiments of 
Roger Williams, — as, unquestionably, they do, — 
then there is no warrant in fact for the accusations 
so freely indulged in by the author of the "Mono- 
graph." Their reiteration under the circumstances 
indicates the weakness of the cause defended, and 
appears like a resort to an ancient argument — the 
safety of the state — in extenuation of tyranny, for 
which the people of this age entertain no great 
respect. But, if the Puritans were really appre- 
hensive of civil disorganization and social disloca- 
tion from his teachings, then it only proves that 
in statesmanship and penetration he was vastly su- 
perior to them ; for he foresaw, what his contem- 
poraries only vaguely discerned, that liberty of 
conscience is compatible with the highest prosperity 
and security of a commonwealth. 

I am sorry to observe, in making out his case, how 
lightly and disingenuously Dr. Dexter writes of the 
sufferings endured by the Baptists of New England. 
To judge from his statements, one would infer that 
the punishments inflicted were very trivial, hardly 
worth mentioning, and certainly not as severe as 
were deserved. He thus records one notable 
case : — 



56 THE GREAT CONFLICT. 

" In July, 1644, one Thomas Painter, then of 
Hingham, who seems to have been an idle, obsti- 
nate, and rather worthless person, suddenly turned 
Anabaptist ; and, ' having a child born, he would 
not suffer his wife to bring it to the ordinance 
of baptism.' The matter was aggravated by the 
fact that he was not himself a member of any 
church, although his wife was ; and by his ' obsti- 
nacy ' and ' very loose behavior. ' They thought 
they exercised much patience with him ; but finally, 
because he was very poor, so as no other but cor- 
poral punishment could be fastened upon him, he 
was ordered to be whipped ; not for his opinion, hut 
for reproaching the Lord's ordinance, and for his bold 
and evil behavior both at home and in the court." 

We have here a most remarkable distinction. 
The whipping was " not for his opinion, but for 
reproaching the Lord's ordinance." But it was his 
opinion that infant-baptism was not an ordinance of 
the Lord's : he regarded it as of human origin, and, 
consequently, not to be observed by those who aimed 
only to acknowledge His authority. 

Similar disingenuousness characterizes the account 
given of the treatment to which Obadiah Holmes 
was subjected, who in 1651 was publicly flogged for 
holding a meeting in Lynn, and for re-baptizing. 
The fact is simply recorded, that he received thirty 
stripes, though in a foot-note we have these words, 



THE WHIPPING OF HOLMES. 57 

" Arnold thinks he was ' cruelly whipped.' " — 
History of Rhode Island, i. 235. On this Dr. Dexter 
comments, " But Clarke (he means Holmes) says, 
c It was so easie to me that I could well bear it ; yea, 
and in a manner felt it not ; '" and that he told the 
magistrates after it was over, " 'You have struck me 
as with roses.' " 

These words are designed to convey the impres- 
sion that the punishment inflicted was very slight, 
and that the whole transaction was a species of 
child's play. But the statement of Holmes, the 
very statement in fact from which Dr. Dexter takes 
his quotations, puts the matter in a very different 
light. I append it, that the readers of these pages 
may judge for themselves : — 

" As the man began to lay the strokes upon my 
back, I said to the people, 6 Though my flesh should 
fail, and my spirit should fail, yet my God would 
not fail.' So it pleased the Lord to come in, and so 
to fill my heart and tongue as a vessel full ; and 
with an audible voice I broke forth praying unto the 
Lord not to lay this sin to their charge, and telling 
the people that now I found he did not fail me, 
and therefore now I should trust him forever who 
failed me not ; for in truth, as the strokes fell upon 
me, I had such a spiritual manifestation of God's 
presence as the like thereof I never had nor felt, 
nor can with fleshly tongue express ; and the out- 



58 THE GREAT CONFLICT. 

ward pain was so removed from me, that indeed I 
am not able to declare it to you : it was so easy to 
me that I could well bear it, yea, and in a manner 
felt it not, although it was grievous, as the spectators 
said, the man striking with all his strength (yea, 
spitting in his hand three times, as many affirmed) 
with a three-corded whip, giving me therewith 
thirty strokes. When he had loosed me from the 
post, having joyfulness in my heart, and cheerful- 
ness in my countenance, as the spectators observed, 
I told the magistrates, 4 You have struck me as 
with roses,' and said moreover, 4 Although the Lord 
hath made it easy for me, yet I pray God it may not 
be laid to your charge.' " 

This comparative unconsciousness of suffering was 
not due, then, to any lack of severity on the part 
of the persecutors, as our good doctor insinuates, 
but to the sustaining grace of God. The failure to 
make this clear in the " Monograph," naturally 
creates unpleasant doubts as to the candor of its 
author, and does not increase our confidence in the 
accuracy of its other historical representations. 

Before closing this review, I may be permitted a 
few words in answer to what he saj^s concerning the 
Anabaptists. He argues that the Puritans should 
be excused for their treatment of New England 
Baptists, on the ground that they were " far from 
being prepossessed in their favor." He adds that 



THE ANABAPTISTS. 59 

they " supposed they had abundant warrant for the 
truth of statements involving the name of Anabap- 
tist with the most indecent as well as painful fren- 
zies ; and they found the prominent good men, 
whose opinions they had been accustomed to receive 
on other subjects with the greatest deference, 
referring to such Anabaptists with a degree of 
reprobation which was surely calculated to impair 
the welcome with which they might receive any 
new-comers avowing that peculiar faith." 

The list of authorities on which they relied, he 
appends, and supplements it with a formidable 
array of works, which the modern student who 
wishes to increase his knowledge of this sect may 
consult. All of these, however, indicate that he is 
more anxious to vindicate the Puritans, than to 
arrive at the truthfulness or falsity of the suspicions 
on which they acted. Indeed, he appears from the 
beginning to have pre-judged this much-abused 
body of Christians, and to have sought exclusively 
the testimony of those who were inclined to make 
out a case against them. A spirit of candor 
would have constrained him, while referring to the 
prejudices of the Puritans in exoneration of their 
apparent intolerance, to have shown that there are 
good reasons for believing that they labored under 
unhappy misapprehensions. 

What he failed to give, I shall take the liberty of 
supplying. 



60 THE GREAT CONFLICT. 

Max Goebel (Gresch. des Christlichen Lebens in 
Westphaleri) doubts " whether any such thorough- 
going moral reform had been attempted since the 
days of Christ, as that of the Anabaptists of the 
Reformation." 

Hess (Life of Zwingle) says of them, " that, 
unable to rise to a higher standpoint, they sought to 
restore the manner of life of the early Christians." 

Jorg (History of Protestantism) testifies that " all 
the Anabaptists wanted was an entirely new church, 
a church of believers." 

Hast (Gf-eschichte der Taufgesinnteri) observes, 
that " the doctrine of spiritual regeneration, the 
soul of Christianity, has perhaps never been taught 
with deeper feeling, and adhered to with greater zeal, 
than by the despised Anabaptists. Their aim was 
the highest possible, — a church of saints. Nowhere 
in church history is found such a subjugation of all 
other motives to the religious, such an approach to 
the order and life of the Church of the Apostles." 
Hase further adds (Neue Proplieteri), " The great 
danger of the Anabaptist heresy lay in the holiness 
of life to which its adherents could refer. In gen- 
eral they maintained the stern heroic morals of 
ancient Christianity. In baptism they foreswore the 
world, the flesh, and the Devil. After the fall 
of Munster, they established everywhere a sincerely 
literal Bible Cliii^tianity.." 



DEFENCE OF TEE ANABAPTISTS. 61 

And Hast expresses the opinion that Melanch- 
thon's writings against the Anabaptists are not to 
be acquitted "of the suspicion of bitter prejudice." 

Cornelius, in his G-esehichte des Munsterischen 
Avfruhrs, also bears most favorable testimony, and 
by his account of this sect reveals the secret of 
the remarkable complaint made by Dr. Erhard, as 
quoted by Hast, that " the Anabaptists have been 
made honorable, and are now (1835) described as 
persecuted innocents." 

Alexandre Weill (Histoire de la Guerre des 
Anabaptistes) writing from an entirely unbiased 
standpoint, declares that they were republicans, from 
whom came Presbyterians, afterwards Cromwell, and 
later Washington and Jefferson ; and that " neither 
Luther nor Zwingle, nor any of their honest adversa- 
ries, ever accused them of immorality." He further 
testifies that they " created the religion of the poor, 
and abolished odious distinctions between master 
and slave." Some of these principles, he says, are 
only ideals as yet, awaiting the future. 

Authorities need not be multiplied excessively; 
especially, as the few we have quoted, are sufficient 
to prove that there are reasons for believing that 
these down-trodden servants of Jesus have been 
sadly misrepresented by their enemies. And if this 
is the case, and the early Baptists of America corre- 
sponded in life and sentiment in any marked degree 



62 THE GREAT CONFLICT. 

to these poor persecuted ones, then the Puritans in 
their treatment of them were guilty of intolerance, 
and not even the gifted pen of Dr. Dexter can 
successfully extenuate their conduct. To defend it 
logically, would be to defend more than even the 
brilliant author of the " Monograph," I suspect, 
would be willing to stand for, — the suppression of 
opinion by force, and the practice of tyranny, civil 
and religious everywhere. 

The Baptist denomination is so fashioned, that it 
is next to impossible for her to form an alliance with 
the State. To effect any such union, she would be 
compelled, first of all, to abandon her distinctive 
character ; that is, cease to be Baptist. 

Throughout all periods of her existence, she has 
affirmed the essential spirituality of Christ's king- 
dom, and the obligation of its members to be respon- 
sible only to its Head. In this regard, her ancient 
teachings anticipated the widely received opinions of 
modern society. 

A great deal is now being said of the advance of 
thought in evangelical theology. In some cases it 
is more than likely that this boasting really means 
that a few erratic, brilliant preachers are rapidly 
eliminating the evangelical from their theology, and 
are advancing towards the glittering hopelessness 
and shining barrenness of Unitarianism. But, when 



SPREAD OF BAPTIST SENTIMENTS. 63 

the progress is not retrogression, I think that it will 
be found steadily setting in the direction of those 
views which have distinguished the Baptists for 
centuries. Clergymen are breaking away from 
former ecclesiastical associations, to proclaim what 
they conceive to be novelties, when in fact, their 
new doctrines are only modern presentations of some 
old Baptist teachings. With the air of a theological 
Columbus, some of these gentlemen are announcing 
their wonderful discoveries ; and thousands of good- 
meaning people are giving them credit for an amount 
of hardihood and penetration which they do not 
possess. They declare, as the very latest develop- 
ment in the progress of religious thought, that, after 
all, Christ is the substance of Christianity, that out- 
ward ordinances cannot impart inward grace, that 
church establishments cannot save, and that every 
soul is answerable to God, and to God alone, for its 
faith. But these sentiments, now so popular when 
they are proclaimed from platforms, and are well 
garnished with rhetoric, do not differ materially from 
the fundamental principles of the Baptists. 

They have taught from the beginning of their 
history, that, without exception, a gospel church 
consists of those who have been renewed by Christ's 
Spirit, who are bound together more by moral 
affinity than by ecclesiastical ties, and who express 
their faith more distinctly through righteousness, 



64 THE GREAT CONFLICT. 

peace, and joy, than in solemn rites or stately cere- 
monies.. In their judgment, no man's religious 
standing can be settled by ordinances, no man's 
hope can be founded on the mediation of earthly 
priests, and no man's creed can be decided by the 
decree of temporal sovereigns. It is their belief 
that only the commerce of the Almighty with the soul 
can quicken its spiritual life ; that only the atone- 
ment of the Messiah can furnish it with ground of 
acceptance ; and that only the revelation of truth in 
the Scriptures can supply it with a " credo" 

The Baptists teach that faith is not hereditary, 
and cannot in any sense be transmitted. They 
declare that even the articles of a creed cannot be 
accepted on parental or priestly authority, but must 
always be the result of personal investigation, re- 
flection, and prayer. Each man in reality only 
believes what he has painfully wrought out for him- 
self, either by an examination of evidence, or by 
the careful observation of his own spiritual experi- 
ence ; and this position the Baptists, with marked 
consistency, stoutly and steadfastly maintain. 

They further contend for the duty of absolute 
and unquestioning obedience to the least word of 
Heaven. What God commands, they affirm man is 
bound to obey. If He has taken the trouble to 
reveal His will, His creatures should certainly take 
pains to submit to its requirements. To question, to 



STATE PATRONAGE DECLINED. 65 

frame excuses for non-compliance, and especially to 
substitute strange practices in the place of His 
appointments, in Baptist theology, as in Scripture 
teaching, is to rebel against the Almighty. 

For such a body as this to form an alliance with 
the State, ,is so utterly at variance with its constitu- 
tion as to be impracticable; and, I am happy it 
is in my power to affirm, that its members have 
never acted so inconsistently as to try and render 
such a union possible. Every thing like it they 
have rejected, treating every proposal and every 
movement looking towards any thing of the kind 
in the most decisive manner. What is more 
remarkable even, they have never yet produced an 
author who has advocated the exercise of civil 
authority to control or determine religious belief. 

Let it not be said that the Baptists have never 
been favored with opportunities to test the integrity 
of their convictions upon this subject. They have 
been tempted on various occasions to adopt the 
prevalent practice, and could have availed them- 
selves of state patronage. In Holland, about the 
beginning of the present century, overtures of this 
character were made to them by the king of that 
country, influenced, doubtless, by the history of the 
Dutch Baptists written by Ypeig and Dermont ; but 
they were declined on principle. The Legislature 
of Georgia, in 1784, passed a law giving three- 



66 THE GREAT CONFLICT. 

pence per pound of moneys in the treasury to the 
support of any minister that might be called to his 
parish by thirty families. The Baptist Association 
of that State, in the following year, protested 
against the law, and sent Silas Mercer and Peter 
Smith to the seat of government to petition for its 
repeal. State patronage under the Assessment Bill 
was offered them in Virginia in 1784. According to 
its provisions, every citizen was to be taxed to sup- 
port religion, but was to have the liberty of saying 
to which denomination his tax should be applied. 
The Baptists perceived the drift of the measure, that 
it was really a reliance on the civil arm, that it recog- 
nized its right to meddle with ecclesiastical affairs, 
and was unjust towards those who rejected Christi- 
anity : consequently, they opposed it, and finally 
succeeded in defeating it. At an earlier period 
(1656), the contiguous Colonies urged Rhode Island 
to join them, and crush the Quakers; but she 
returned this answer: " We shall strictly adhere to 
the foundation principles on which the colony was 
first settled; i.e., liberty of conscience in religious 
concernments." Well did Dr. Francis Wayland say 
of the Baptists, " When they have obtained the 
power to persecute in turn, they used that power 
only to return good for evil, and by granting to their 
persecutors every right which they claimed for them- 
selves. When any sect can lay claim to higher or 



ANABAPTISTS AND WALDENSES. 67 

more honorable distinction, we will bow before them, 
and cheerfully yield them Christian precedence." 

The members of this communion from an earlier 
period in history than is generally recognized, appear 
to have felt that the indications of Providence, as 
well as the genius of their system, pointed to them 
as the Heaven-ordained pioneers of soul-liberty. 
Under this impression, it did not satisfy them merely 
to keep their own churches clear from unhallowed 
affiliations with secular governments, but they un- 
dertook the much more difficult task of rescuing 
all Christian denominations from such unscriptural 
and perilous fellowships. The antiquity, variety, 
and extent of their labors in this service, deserve 
from every lover of human progress, and especially 
from those who have inherited the fruit of the 
seed which they sowed in tears, pain, and blood, 
more than an ordinary notice. 

Principal Cunningham says, " The Anabaptists of 
the Reformation seem to have been the first, if 
Donatists be excepted, who stumbled upon the 
voluntary principle." Fuller, the English Church 
historian, declares that " the Baptists of his day 
were the Donatists new -dipped;" and Neander, 
testifying to the origin of the latter sect in 811, 
adds that they were distinguished for their 6 ' ideas 
concerning liberty of conscience, concerning the 
rights of free . religious conviction." — History of 



68 THE GREAT CONFLICT. 

Religion^ vol. ii. pp. 182-217. This author also 
refers to a treatise on Antichrist, which was 
published by the Waldenses earlier than 1120, the 
date usually assigned it, in which we have the 
following description : " He arrived at maturity 
when men whose hearts were set upon the world 
multiplied in the Church, and by the union of 
Church and State got the power of both into their 
hands ; " also it is declared, " We hold in abhorrence 
all human inventions, as proceeding from Anti- 
christ, which produce distrust, and are prejudicial 
to the liberty of mind." All the confessions of this 
ancient body of Christians, which I have been able 
to consult, studiously avoid any terms that might 
seem to recognize the right of the civil magistrate 
to regulate in affairs of the conscience. Among 
this simple people, in the sublime solitudes of their 
valleys, the idea of soul-liberty was nourished and 
cherished, ready, in God's good time, to assert its 
authority before the entire world. 

Of the identity of this people with the Baptists, 
I cannot now speak at length. Limborch, whose 
account of them Dr. Wall indorses as the most 
reliable, declares that they bore the greatest resem- 
blance to the Mennonites, or modern Dutch Baptists. 
Also Starck, the court preacher of Darmstadt QIRst. 
of Bapt., Leipsic, 1789, pp. 115, 118), when refer- 
ring to the Anabaptists, testifies, '* that although 



THE WALDENSES. 69 

they held a connection with Munzer, Storck, Grebel, 
Stubner, and Keller, the Waldenses were their pre- 
decessors." 

They are likewise attended to by that rampant 
ritualist, W. J. E. Bennett of Frome {The History 
of the Church Broken*), where he writes, — 

" The historian Lingard tells us that there was a 
sect of fanatics who infested the North of Germany, 
called Puritans. Usher calls them Waldenses ; 
Spelman, Paulicians (the same as Waldenses). 
They gained ground, and spread all over England. 
They rejected all Romish ceremonies, denied the 
authority of the Pope, and more particularly refused 
to baptize infants. Thirty of them were put to death 
for their heretical doctrines, near Oxford ; but the 
remainder still held on to their opinions in private 
until the time of Henry II. (1158) ; and the his- 
torian Collier tells us that, wherever this heresy 
prevailed, the churches were either scandalously neg- 
lected or pulled down, and infants left unbaptized" 

While other writers can be cited on the Baptist 
side of the controversy, such as Morland, Chesannion, 
Dr. Potter, and Charvaz, there are not a few able 
authors who entertain the very opposite convictions. 
Indeed, so great a diversity of opinion has obtained 
upon the subject, that the Presbyterian tries to 
make them out Presbyterians ; the Episcopalian, 
Episcopalians ; and even the Catholics, by Pius 



70 THE GREAT CONFLICT. 

Melia, in a work dedicated to Prince Louis Lucien 
Bonaparte, contend that this sect did not originate 
until 1170, and at first differed from Rome only in 
regard to the privileges of laymen. An historical 
defence of the Waldenses, by Jean Rodolphe Peyran, 
dedicated to Frederick William, King of Prussia, 
runs entirely counter to some of these representa- 
tions, and gives from one of their most ancient 
creeds this view of baptism, without ever a word 
regarding infants in it: " We believe that God 
instituted the sacrament of baptism for a testimony 
of our adoption, and that we might be washed from 
our sins in the blood of Christ, and renewed unto 
holiness of life." 

We know they were not Catholics, because they 
denounced Rome as Antichrist ; neither were they 
Episcopalians, because George Maurel, quoted by 
Scultetus in his Annales, distinctly stated to 
CEcolampadius that they had but two orders in the 
ministry ; and they do not seem to have been Paedo- 
baptists originally, for Starck maintains, with no 
small degree of conclusiveness, that they rejected 
infant-baptism. 

It is clear that not much confidence can be felt in 
the representations of what the ancient Waldenses 
believed, by what their successors since the Reforma- 
tion have taught ; for a kind of union was effected 
between them and the Calvinists at Angrogna in 



LOLLARDS AND THEIR DOCTRINES. 71 

1532, which doubtless modified their views in some 
respects. But, I do not think I overstep the bounds 
of modesty when I express the opinion, that 
cherishing among themselves perfect liberty of 
conscience, and worshipping not the idol uniformity, 
there may have been divisions, as there are now in 
the great Protestant party, on the minor though 
important questions of ordinances. With this quali- 
fication, Baptists undoubtedly may be identified with 
the Waldenses, and so be identified with the earliest 
adherents of religious freedom. 

From the valleys of these simple worshippers came 
Walter Lollard into England about the year 1315. 
Fuller, the church historian already quoted, gives 
this fact, and speaks very highly of his character. 
His disciples soon coalesced with those of Wyckliffe, 
and were ultimately called by his name. I cannot 
but question the sufficiency of the evidence on which 
Wyckliffe is claimed as a Baptist, though I think it 
very likely that very many of the Lollards were in 
full accord with the teachings of that body. 

It is far from improbable that some among the 
Lollards, may have practiced infant-baptism ; but 
Thomas Waldensis, the chronicler, puts on record 
u that they acknowledged but two sacraments, and 
administered baptism only to adults." If he is cor- 
rect, then the rite of infant-baptism may only have 
been tolerated, as the lines were never drawn 



72 THE GREAT CONFLICT. 

between those who differed from Rome, as sharply 
before the rise of Luther as they have been since. 
But, whatever may have been the views of the 
majority on gospel ordinances, they gave no doubt- 
ful sound when the cause of soul-liberty needed 
witnesses ; for as Green in his recent History of the 
English People, p. 264, says, " It was in the preach- 
ing of John Ball (a Lollard) that England first 
listened to the knell of feudalism, and the declara- 
tion of the rights of man." Thus we may trace the 
planting of the germ of freedom in English soil, 
where it was to take root, and grow into a stately 
tree, whose leaves should be for the healing of the 
nations. 

Its growth was much facilitated in England by 
the arrival of many Anabaptists from Germany. 
Bishop Burnet testifies that they were not few in 
number in 1549 ; and Collier (vol. ii. 577) refers 
to their many conventicles in 1589. Latimer, who 
could not speak too badly of the Baptists, neverthe- 
less bears witness to their numbers and intrepidity : 
" Here I have to tell you what I heard of late, by 
the relation of a credible person and a worshipful 
man, of a town in this realm of England, that hath 
about five hundred of heretics of this erroneous 
opinion in it. The Anabaptists that were burnt 
here, in divers towns of England (as I have heard 
of credible men: I saw them not myself), met their 



THE PEASANTS' WAR. 73 

death even intrepid, as you will say, without any 
fear in the world. Well, let them go. There was 
in the old times another kind of poisoned heretics, 
that were called Donatists ; and those heretics went 
to their execution as they should have gone to some 
jolly recreation and banquet." 

Marsden tells us, that, in the days of Elizabeth, 
" the Anabaptists were the most numerous, and for 
some time by far the most formidable, opponents of 
the Church. T\\qj are said to have existed in Eng- 
land since the early days of the Lollards." 

These people had fled from their native land 
because of the bitter persecutions which beset them; 
for ; as Vierordt, in his History of the Reformation 
in Baden, says, " No religious party can relatively 
show as many martyrs as these Anabaptists." They 
fared but little better in England than in Germany. 
More than once were they excluded from royal 
clemency ; and frequently were they stretched on 
the rack, torn by the lash, or given to the flames. 

Doubtless much -of the bitterness felt towards 
them arose from their connection with the move- 
ment in Germany, known as the Peasants' War, 
which was not free from various excesses both 
in theory and practice. The misapprehension of 
the part they bore in that struggle, as we have 
already gathered from Dr. Dexter, prejudiced the 
mind of the Puritans towards their descendants in 



74 THE GREAT CONFLICT. 

New England, and has served to point attacks upon 
them even in these more modern times. 

Of course it is no part, of my plan to enter upon a 
complete review of the facts in the case ; but a few 
words may be allowed me, just to show how preju- 
dice on the one hand, and ignorance on the other, 
have warped the judgment of their critics. 

The oft-repeated declaration that the Baptists 
originated with this revolt is absurd, as there were 
many of the order in England before the fatal 
enterprise was set on foot. Bishop Burnet ac- 
knowledges that this denomination has been unjust- 
ly injured by being identified with the men who 
engaged in political disturbances of Miinster. He 
attributes the rise of the Baptists in Germany to 
their carrying out the principles of Luther, regard- 
ing the sufficiency of Scripture and the rights of 
private judgment. (History of the Reformation, 
ii. 176.) But Mosheim goes farther when he says, 
" Before the rise of Luther and Calvin, there lay 
concealed, in almost all the countries of Europe, 
persons who adhered tenaciously to the principles of 
the modern Dutch Baptists." Their origin, there- 
fore, cannot be traced to the Peasants' War ; and, 
though some of them did take part in that fatal 
effort, we must agree with Bayle where he expresses 
the conviction, that "many Anabaptists who suf- 
fered death for their opinions had no thought of 



CAUSES OF THE WAR. 75 

making an insurrection." — Art. " Anabaptists " m 
Historical and Critical Dictionary. 

The truth is, this wide-sweeping revolution arose 
from two causes, — first, the galling slavery of the 
feudal system, which pressed sorely on the humbler 
classes ; second, the spirit of liberty, which the writ- 
ings of Luther had done much to stimulate. The 
example, also, of Luther must have had much to do 
with the revolt. He had defied the pope's author- 
ity, and had been declared an enemy of the holy 
empire. He had bravely and practically maintained 
his right to think for himself ; and his course was 
not calculated to promote the spirit of absolute sub- 
mission in the lowly. In their bosom burned the 
imperishable love of liberty, — a love greater in the 
oppressed masses than in the privileged few, and 
naturally it impelled them to take advantage of the 
unsettled times to shake off the galling yoke of. 
rulers, temporal as well as spiritual. 

The troubles were commenced in 1525. Soon the 
peasants were in arms, and their grievances were 
drawn up in twelve articles, written, according to 
Stern, the latest authority, by Hubmeyer the Bap- 
tist pastor of Walclshut, and sent to the princes 
of Germany. This document drew from Voltaire 
an eloquent eulogium ; and it deserves the admira- 
tion of every freeman, as it was simply a grand 
protest against tyranny. They plead for u reli- 



76 THE GREAT CONFLICT, 

gious instruction;" they declare " their willingness 
to submit to the control of magistrates, but not 
to be slaves, unless slavery could be proved right 
from the Holy Scripture." Had their representations 
been attended to, the front of armed rebellion would 
have changed to that of submission. But they 
were not. The force of the empire was directed 
against them ; and, feeling that they had no mercy 
to expect from their oppressors, some of their more 
ignorant and excitable leaders were betrayed into 
excesses, which compromised the whole movement, 
and which have covered their descendants with 
unmerited opprobrium. 

These excesses should be condemned ; but, at the 
same time it should not be forgotten, that the 
uprising was the initial effort in Europe towards 
complete emancipation from tyranny both civil and 
religious. They attempted, what was afterwards 
more successfully undertaken by the Puritans for 
themselves in the English Revolution. Both parties 
earnestly engaged, under different circumstances, in 
furtherance of the same glorious cause ; and both 
were seriously injured by the extravagances of 
fanatics. If the Anabaptists are to be stigmatized 
as a class, because of the high-handed proceedings 
and wild vagaries of their fanatical members, why 
should the Puritans be honored, when not a few of 
their number were absurd extremists and uncontroll- 



SPUBGEON'S TESTIMONY. 77 

able zealots? Neither body, as a whole, deserves 
such unqualified censure ; for it will be found that 
the most sacred revolutions cannot escape the dis- 
torting influence of half-crazy adherents. 

In estimating the Anabaptist movement in Ger- 
many, this should be remembered ; and it should not 
be overlooked, that this was the first wave of that 
great ocean of political freedom which broke over 
France, which submerged royalty in America, and 
which to-day, like the sea of glass that appeared 
to John, calmly covers the hills and valleys of our 
beloved country. 

Rev. Charles H. Spurgeon, who has enjoyed rare 
opportunities of forming an intelligent opinion of 
the merits and demerits of the Peasants' War, has 
put on record his conclusions in words which con- 
firm what I have just written, and which I com- 
mend to the candid consideration of those who are 
willing to deal justly by the memory of noble men 
who have been ungenerously treated. He says : — 

" The time will probably arrive when history will 
be re-written, and the maligned Baptists of Holland 
and Germany will be acquitted of all complicity 
with the ravings of the insane fanatics ; and it will 
be proved that they were the advance-guard of the 
army of religious liberty, men who lived ahead of 
their times, but whose influence might have saved 
the world centuries of floundering in the bog of semi- 



78 THE GREAT CONFLICT. 

popery if they had but been allowed fair play. As 
it was, their views, like those of modern Baptists, 
so completely laid the axe at the root of all priest- 
craft and sacramentarianism, that violent opposition 
was aroused ; and the two-edged sword of defama- 
tion and extirpation was set to its cruel work, and 
kept to it with a relentless perseverance never 
excelled, perhaps never equalled. All other sects 
may be in some degree borne with ; but Baptists are 
utterly intolerable to priests and popes, neither can 
despots and tyrants endure them." 

Hubmeyer, to whom I have referred, on whose 
character and work modern scholarship is throwing 
much light, thus sets forth their doctrine of soul- 
liberty, in thesis and in friendly disputation with 
the reformers : — 

" Faith is in the heart, and you cannot force that 
by threats and chains. Thought and belief may 
not be obstructed by violence, or fettered by dis- 
abilities, but are to toll free, in all travel and 
commerce of mind." More fully, "On Heretics, 
and those who burn them," he defends even Turks 
and atheists, and all possible offenders, as well as 
nominal Christian sects, from persecution. His 
words are : — 

" The burning of heretics cannot be justified by 
the Bible. There are two kinds of heretics. One 
class, at the head of which stand Satan and his 



HUBMEYER. 79 

followers, embraces all those impiously opposing the 
Holy Scriptures as the word of Gocl. The other 
class includes those who falsely interpret the Holy 
Scriptures, put ruler for pastor, Rome for church, 
&c. Although little good can be expected from such 
people, still they should be instructed with gentle- 
ness; and, if that bears no fruit, then we should 
depart from them. Christ himself demands that 
the tares should be allowed to grow with the wheat. 
From that and other passages it is evident that 
those who kill heretics are themselves the greatest 
heretics. For Christ did not come to slay, destroy, 
or burn, but to keep and improve, all men. We 
should therefore pray and hope for improvement as 
long as a man lives. Besides, a Turk or a Jew 
cannot be convinced by force of the sword, but only 
by patience and instruction. Therefore to burn her- 
etics is only to confess Christ in appearance, but to 
deny him in fact. 

"It is a still greater crime to burn to ashes as 
heretics without a hearing, and without being over- 
come by the truth, those who are the expounders 
and exemplars of the word of God. There is no 
greater deception of the people than that apparent 
zeal for God, for the welfare of souls, the honor of 
the church, old usages, &c, which is not based 
on the authority of the Scriptures. For men 
should not presume to do any thing better or more 



80 THE GREAT CONFLICT. 

reliable than what God has declared. It may be 
scripturally justifiable to burn profane books, but 
it is a small thing to burn innocent paper. To 
point out errors, and then overthrow them with the 
Scripture, that is art." 

As in Germany, so on English soil, these Anabap- 
tists stood forth before all men, the uncompromising 
advocates of freedom. Dr. Some, a clergyman dur- 
ing the reign of Elizabeth, wrote a treatise in which 
he charged them with holding, " that ministers ought 
to be maintained by the voluntary principle ; that 
the civil magistrate has no right to make and impose 
laws on the consciences of men." — Neal, ii. 360. 
Whitgift accuses them of teaching, that " the civil 
magistrate hath no authority in ecclesiastical mat- 
ters ; that he ought not to meddle in cases of religion 
and faith ; and that Christians ought to punish 
faults, not with imprisonment, not with the sword, 
or corporal punishment, but only with excommuni- 
cation." — Works, i. 78-110; Cramp., pp. 280-283. 
"With such elements in England, with such people 
settling there from various quarters, spreading 
such sentiments, no wonder that the movement to 
secure soul-liberty should assume vaster propor- 
tions, and manifest itself in broader efforts for its 
triumph. 

Early in the seventeenth century, to escape from 
persecution, many Baptists and Independents fled 



BAPTIST CHURCHES IN ENGLAND. 81 

into Holland. Among them were John Robinson, 
to whom I have already referred ; and John Smyth, 
who became the representative of Baptist principles 
abroad. Whether from intercourse with the Dutch 
Baptists in Holland, or from a previous investiga- 
tion of their views, I cannot satisfactorily determine ; 
but through some cause Smyth became the bold, 
outspoken champion of religious liberty. He died 
about the year 1611 ; and in company with Mr. 
Helwisse, another of the exiles, the Church he estab- 
lished returned to England. Robinson did not sym- 
pathize with Smyth's doctrine ; and possibly this 
incompatibility experienced not alone by these breth- 
ren, but by others in their native land, measurably 
destroyed the alliance that appears to have existed 
between the Baptists and Independents. 

We know at least, that from this period the Bap- 
tists separate themselves from other communions, 
and become more distinctly a denomination in Great 
Britain. They may have had a few churches of 
their own prior to this time, though it is very proba- 
ble that they had mingled more or less freely in 
ecclesiastical relations with those who were in accord 
with them on the saving doctrines of the Bible. 
But at last, realizing the irrepressible conflict of 
views which existed on other topics, they may have 
concluded that loyalty to conscience demanded of 
them a separate organization, that their own liberty 



82 THE GREAT CONFLICT. 

might be maintained, and that of their brethren, 
who differed from thern, remain inviolate. Be this 
as it may, from the beginning of the seventeenth 
century, Baptist churches, as such, come into greater 
prominence, and are found with greater pertinacity 
than ever enunciating, elaborating, and publishing 
their views of religious liberty. 

In 1611 the London Baptist Confession of Faith 
was published, in which are these golden words : 
" We believe that the magistrate is not to meddle 
with religion, or matters of conscience, nor compel 
men to this or that form of religion, because Christ 
is king and lawgiver of the Church and conscience." 
This was followed, three years later, by the first 
modern treatise upon this article of faith. Its title 
is, " Religious Peace, or a Plea for Liberty of Con- 
science ; " and it was written by Leonard Busher, a 
Baptist. The spirit of the whole performance may 
be gathered from this forceful and broad statement : 
" That it may be lawful for every person or persons, 
yea, Jews, Turks, Pagans, and Papists, to write, 
dispute, confer, and reason, print and publish any 
matter, touching any religion, either for or against 
whomsoever." The work of Busher was republished 
more than once by the denomination of which he 
was a member, showing that his brethren heartily 
indorsed its sentiments. 

Another treatise appeared in 1615, from the pen of 



THE LITERATURE OF FREEDOM. 83 

a Baptist, bearing the title, " Persecution for Reli- 
gion judged and condemned by Christ's unworthy 
witnesses, His Majesty's faithful Subjects, commonly 
but most falsely called Anabaptists." It maintained 
the doctrine that " earthly authority belongeth to 
earthly kings, but spiritual authority belongeth to 
that one spiritual King who is king of kings." 

Roger Williams refers to another notable docu- 
ment upon this subject, which was written in New- 
gate Prison. Denied ink, its authors employed milk, 
which afterwards, being held to a fire, became 
legible, and was copied. Williams says, with great 
impressiveness, " Their arguments were written in 
milk, and answered in blood." 

It is not possible to give an account here of 
all the literary contributions of Baptist witnesses, 
toward the complete exposition of their views 
regarding freedom. One work by Thomas Richard- 
son (1647), one by prisoners in Maidstone Jail 
(1660), another yet called " Zion's Groans" (1662), 
and a mass of creeds, confessions, and defences, swell 
the volume of their testimony in behalf of this sacred 
cause. 

So potent was the influence of these productions, 
that, combined with similar private and public oral 
teachings of Baptist pastors and laymen, many who 
were not of their way of thinking in other respects, 
were led to sympathize with their views on the 



84 THE GREAT CONFLICT. 

sovereignty of conscience. The revolution under 
Cromwell, while not aiming to vindicate the central 
doctrine of the down-trodden Baptists, could not 
but be largely indebted for its inspiration to their 
hatred of tyranny and love of independence, as it 
was for its successes to their courage and fidelity. 
Their names are prominently associated with the 
great events of this wonderful upheaval of society. 

There were Tombes, Jessey, Dyke, Gosnald, Knol- 
lys, and Denne, who had held priestly orders in the 
Established Church, and who became distinguished 
upholders of the Protector's policy. There also 
was Collins, a pupil of Busby ; De Veil, a convert 
from Judaism ; Dell, a chaplain of Lord Fairfax, and, 
till the Restoration, head of one of the colleges in 
the University of Cambridge ; and Vavasor Powell, 
Thomas Delaune, Benjamin Keach, and John Bun- 
yan. Among these Baptists stood Overton, a friend 
of Milton, who in 1651 was second in command 
under Cromwell in Scotland ; Admiral Penn of the 
English Navy, father of the American Colonist ; 
Fleetwood, Cromwell's son-in-law ; and Major-Gen. 
Harrison, who was brutally executed, on the return 
of the Stuarts, as a regicide. 

The enthusiasm with which Baptists espoused the 
cause of liberty may be inferred from the hearty 
commendation the}' received from Cromwell in his 
letter to the House of Commons, reporting the battle 



CROMWELL AND THE BAPTISTS. 85 

of Naseby. Thomas Carlyle quotes the letter in full 
{Oliver Cromivell, vol. i. 169), and comments on 
these sentences : " Honest men served you faithfully 
in this action. Sirs, they are trusty : I beseech you, 
in the name of God, not to discourage them. He that 
ventures his life for the liberty of his country, I 
wish he trust God for the liberty of his conscience, 
and you for the liberty he fights for ; " on which 
Carlyle says, " The c honest men ' are the considerable 
portion of the army who have not yet succeeded in 
bringing themselves to take the covenant ; whom 
the Presbyterian party, vigorous for their own form- 
ula, call ' schismatics,' ' sectaries,' ; Anabaptists,' and 
other hard names ; whom Cromwell here and else- 
where earnestly pleads for." 

Neither should it be forgotten, that these same 
'honest men,' who stood so loyally with Cromwell at 
Naseby, in equal honesty stood against him when he 
appeared to be usurping prerogatives which belonged 
to the people ; and with still grander honestj^ en- 
treated him, when a misguided Parliament urged 
him to assume the kingly rank, not to wound the 
old cause he had served so well, by accepting the 
crown of England. {Milton s State Papers, p. 142.) 

But, if the revolution may be measurably attrib- 
uted to the influence of Baptists, so to their noble 
confidence in the power of truth, to their ceaseless 
struggle against the empire of prejudice, and to their 



86 THE GREAT CONFLICT. 

comprehensive views of civil government, may be 
traced the tone of thought essentially opposed to 
persecution, which, during this and subsequent 
periods, distinguished the writings of some who are 
now regarded as among the chief ornaments of other 
religious communities. 

Thus Chillingworth, a Churchman, and a zealous 
supporter of King Charles, in 1637, just twenty- 
five years after the publication of Busher's " Plea 
for Liberty of Conscience," and twenty-six years 
after the appearance of the " London Baptist Con- 
fession," drew with a bold and unfaltering hand the 
outline of that immortal principle on which rests the 
Protestant system. He may not have realized that 
the logical outcome of his argument in defence of 
the right of private judgment was diametrically 
opposed to the Royalist cause and to the Establish- 
ment, but it was so, nevertheless. And it has since 
proved one of the mightiest engines employed in 
fashioning the modern liberal sentiment of Eng- 
land. 

Jeremy Taylor's " Liberty of Prophesying " has 
been highly praised, and has exerted an immense 
influence. It was a noble attempt for an Episco- 
palian to make towards the exercise of toleration. 
This, however, is all that can be claimed for it. 
Toleration was its theme, while the Baptist works 
which preceded it demanded absolute liberty. The 



JEREMY TAYLOR AND MILTON. 87 

Churchman also advocated rather a narrow tolera- 
tion ; for he writes, "Anabaptists are as much to be 
rooted out as any thing that is the greatest pest 
and nuisance ; " and, unfortunately for his consist- 
ency, he wrote his book in exile, and, to a certain 
extent, abandoned its principles when his Church 
regained her ascendency. On which Coleridge re- 
marks, " If Jeremy Taylor had not in effect retracted 
after the restoration ; if he had not, as soon as the 
Church had gained power, most basely disclaimed 
and disavowed the principle of toleration, and apolo- 
gized for the publication by declaring it to have 
been a ruse de guerre, currying pardon for his past 
liberalism by charging and most probably slandering 
himself with the guilt of falsehood, treachery, and 
hypocrisy, — his character as a man would have 
been almost stainless."- — Notes on English Divines, i. 
209. 

But, of all the champions who have defended the 
doctrine of religious liberty, John Milton is the 
grandest, even as " Areopagitica," the tract in which 
he embodied his opinions, represents the very highest 
point that English eloquence has attained. Even 
now it cannot be read without deep emotion ; and 
when it appeared, in 1644, it must have exerted an 
immense influence on all classes of societ}', especially 
on the more cultured. His advocacy of a cause 
which had been prejudiced by its Anabaptistical as- 



88 THE GREAT CONFLICT. 

sociations must measurably have relieved it of odium, 
and have inclined the more enlightened and conserv- 
ative to consider it seriously and candidly. By his 
eloquence, Milton revealed the beauty of Liberty, 
and charmed even those hearts that had despised her 
heavenly form when unveiled by the homely speech 
of Anabaptists. He summoned literature to the 
support of Libertjr ; he arrayed her in its silken 
robes, and crowned her with its gold and jewels ; 
and to-day the world, in its admiration of the 
wondrous drapery which he hung in graceful folds 
about her figure, quite overlooks the poor, despised 
Anabaptists, who rescued her life from destruction, 
and nourished her into healthful activity on their 
own blood. 

It is now stoutly maintained by some students of 
history, that Milton himself was a member of this 
sect. The theological writings which are credited 
to his pen, and which bear internal marks of his 
authorship, are put in as evidence of this claim. It 
is likewise well known, that Dr. Featly, a Presby- 
terian controversialist, in 1644 entreated " the most 
noble lords " that Milton might be cut off " as a 
pestilent Anabaptist." Moreover, it cannot be de- 
nied that some coloring of probability is imparted 
to this opinion by the well-known lines from " Para- 
dise Regained : " — 



SOUL LIBERTY IN ENGLAND. 89 

" To his disciples, men who in this life 

Still followed him, — to them shall leave in charge 

To teach all nations what of him they learned, 

And his salvation ; them who shall believe, 

Baptizing in the prqfluent stream, the sign 

Of washing them from guilt of sin to life ; 

Pure, and in mind prepared, if so befall, 

For death like that which the Redeemer died." 

Here, at least, neither infant-baptism nor asper- 
sion is countenanced. While these arguments can 
hardly be deemed sufficient to establish the point 
in question, they clearly prove that the poet and 
statesman was so intimate with this people, and so 
fully in sympathy with them, that he exposed him- 
self to such accusations as that brought by Dr. Feat- 
ly. He was not ashamed of their fellowship ; and 
who can tell how far the world is indebted to it for 
the noble testimony he bore, a testimony which has 
caused the enthusiasm of liberty to thrill through 
every generation of Englishmen since his day? 

These agencies, and others such as these, inspired 
by the simple appeals and the heroic attitude of the 
Baptist fathers, have advanced the cause of reli- 
gious freedom to a commanding position in Great 
Britain. In the hearts of its people, excepting only 
those whose personal interests are identified with 
the maintenance of Church and State, it has found 
an abiding home and a secure retreat. The convic- 



90 THE GREAT CONFLICT. 

tions and sentiments of its citizens are in advance 
of its legislation. The Establishment yet remains, 
and unequal laws still press sorely upon Dissenters. 
The government has risen no higher than to enact- 
ments assuring toleration ; but this, in its broadest 
sense, reigns throughout the land. This unsatisfac- 
1 tory arrangement, however, cannot long endure. 
Many years cannot now elapse before the sentiment 
of the nation must conquer its legislation, and then 
the majesty of law shall recognize and shelter the 
majesty of liberty, and the last trace of ecclesiasti- 
cal tyranny vanish from the British empire. 

This final reform seems destined to reach the 
mother-country by the way of America. What 
Berkeley in his well-known stanza wrote of empire, 
may with equal truth be affirmed of freedom : — 

" Westward the course of freedom takes its way: 
The four first acts already past, 
A fifth shall close the drama with the day: 
Time's noblest offspring is the last." 

The fifth act in this drama presents the struggles 
of the Baptists, and of those who co-operated with 
them, for the triumph of religious liberty upon 
this continent. It also marks a growing unity 
of sentiment upon this subject, and makes sure the 
dawning of the day, when spiritual despotism shall 
no more be known among men. 



RELIGIOUS LIBERTY IN AMERICA. 91 

America is the only country, where such a pro- 
vision as this can be found ingrafted upon its Con- 
stitution: " Congress shall make no law respecting 
an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free 
exercise thereof." This is part of the first amend- 
ment made to the fundamental instrument of our 
government ; for as originally framed it simply 
declared that "no religious test shall ever be re- 
quired as a qualification to any office or public trust 
under the United States." It will be perceived, 
that this article did not in express terms prohibit 
Congress from erecting a state religion, or inter- 
fering with the free exercise of religion otherwise 
than as regards office. This was not satisfactory 
to the people ; and, in consequence, the amend- 
ment was adopted, which imparts a purely secular 
character to the government of the United States. 

According to its representation, logically inter- 
preted, we have over us a purely secular organiza- 
tion, contrived and devised for purely secular ends ; 
and whatever of religion may exist within its 
jurisdiction is entirely independent of its authority 
and patronage. The faith of the nation is per- 
sonal, not governmental : it is one of the reserved 
rights of the people, and is not vested, in any sense, 
in the earthly powers that have rule over them. 

As it appears evident by the enactment of the 
first amendment to the Constitution, that religious 



92 THE GREAT CONFLICT. 

liberty, as we now understand it, did not spring full- 
orbed and complete in the United States, we should 
endeavor to trace the stages of its development, 
especially, if we would understand and appreciate 
the relation of the Baptists to its triumph. 

It is well known, that, previous to the outbreak 
of the American Revolution, some form of church 
establishment, ordained by law, was familiar to the 
people of most of the Colonies. Ramsay states 
{History of the United States, p. 232) that the 
exceptions were Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, Dela- 
ware, and New Jersey. But Pennsylvania does not 
appear to have been entirely free of the taint ; for 
with all of the Quaker devotion to freedom of 
conscience, — derived most likely, as far as William 
Penn was concerned, from his Baptist father, — 
those who separated from the regular order in 1691 
appear to have suffered unfair treatment, fines and 
imprisonments, at the hands of their brethren. 
George Keith, one of the dissenting Quakers, was 
arrested and imprisoned, and obtained his freedom 
from a Baptist magistrate, John Holmes, who ruled 
" that it was a religious dispute, and therefore not 
fit for a civil court." — Benedict, History, 597 '■; 
Cotton Mather's Magnolia, vol. ii. 456. 

This condition of .affairs, as we have already seen, 
exposed the Baptists to many cruel trials and perse- 
cutions ; but all of their sufferings could not weaken 



BAPTIST MOVEMENTS. 93 

their devotion to the Scripture principle of freedom. 
They continued its consistent and most persistent 
advocates. 

The first treatise published in its defence upon 
this continent, was from the pen of one who had 
embraced their sentiments, — Roger Williams. In 
harmony with the doctrine laid down in " The 
Bloody Tenet of Persecution for Cause of Con- 
science," he began " the first civil government that 
gave equal liberty of conscience." Through all the 
weary years which succeeded the founding of Rhode 
Island until the dawning of the Revolution, the 
Baptists North and South sympathized most heartily 
with the liberal spirit of its charter ; and, with the 
beginning of troubles between the mother-country 
and her colonies, set on foot a series of agitations 
which resulted gloriously in the adoption of the first 
constitutional amendment. 

Their labors in Virginia were memorable, and 
had a remarkable influence upon the whole land. 
Campbell, a Presbyterian, referring to the conflict 
in that commonwealth, testifies that " the Baptists, 
having suffered persecution under the Establish- 
ment, were of all others the most inimical to it, and 
the most active in its subversion." Of them Bishop 
Meade says, " They took the lead in dissent, and 
were the chief object of persecution bj the magis- 
trates, and the most violent afterward in seeking 



94 THE GREAT CONFLICT. 

the downfall of the Establishment." — History of 
Virginia, 555 ; Mead's History, i. 52. 

In August, 1775, the General Association of 
Virginia memorialized the convention of that State, 
declaring that military resistance ought to be made 
to Great Britain, and requested permission to serve 
in the army as chaplains. It was likewise added, 
" We hold that the mere toleration of religion by 
the civil government is not sufficient; that no 
State establishment ought to exist; that all religious 
denominations ought to stand upon the same foot- 
ing; and that to all alike the protection of the 
government should be extended, securing to them 
the peaceable enjoyment of their own religious 
principles and modes of worship. Whilst we assert 
for ourselves a freedom to assert, to profess, and to 
observe the religion we believe to be of divine 
origin, we cannot deny an equal freedom to those 
whose minds have not yielded to the evidence which 
has convinced us." 

The convention responded to this declaration of 
principles, by conceding to the Baptists and other 
dissenters the privilege of preaching to the troops, 
&c. : and in 1776, through the special efforts of 
James Madison, incorporated the substance of this 
declaration in Art. XVI. of the Virginia Bill of 
Rights. In the same year, " an act for exempting 
the different denominations of dissenters from con- 



VIRGINIA'S WORK. 95 

tributing to the support and maintenance of the 
church as by law established, and for its ministers," 
was carried. This was a wonderful step in advance, 
and culminated in 1777, through petitions from 
Baptists and Presbyterians, in a comprehensive 
statute that suspended the collection of taxes for 
the support of religious teachers. 

The controversies and agitations incident to such 
a revolution did not end here. Another memorial 
was presented by the Baptists in 1785 ; and upon its 
basis Mr. Jefferson drew the act for establishing 
religious freedom. Although its main principles 
had already been lawfully carried, it was needful, as 
it had met with opposition, that it should come up 
for final disposement. After a lengthy and earnest 
debate, it became a statute of the Commonwealth. 

Jefferson always recognized the signal service 
which the leaders in this movement had rendered 
the State. 

Writing to the members of the Baptist Church of 
Buck Mountain, who were his neighbors, in 1809, 
he said, " We have acted together from the origin to 
the end of a memorable revolution; and we have 
contributed, each in the line allotted to us, our 
endeavors to render its issues a permanent blessing 
to our country." — Jefferson's Works, i. 45. 

Even after this victory, the Episcopal Church 
enjoj^ed certain endowments ; and these restless 



96 THE GREAT CONFLICT. 

Baptists, allied with the Presbyterians, were not 
satisfied until through their joint endeavors this 
inconsistenc} r was removed, as it was in 1802, when 
the glebe-lands were ordered to be sold. As Bishop 
Meade says, " The warfare begun by the Baptists, 
seven and twenty years before, was now finished. 
The Church was in ruins, and the triumph of her 
enemies was complete." They had indeed succeeded. 
Thej* had secured the abolition of all ecclesiastical 
distinctions, and had wiped the last trace of spiritual 
tyranny from the old Commonwealth. But they had 
toiled for no exclusive privilege. What they won 
for themselves, they conceded to every Christian, 
every Jew, and every infidel, alike. The methods 
they adopted were frank and manly. They wel- 
comed as allies the Presbyterians, or whoever else 
might sympathize with them ; and they were ani- 
mated by no sectarian spirit against the Episcopacy, 
but only demanded that it should stand, as other de- 
nominations, unsupported by law, upon the strength 
of its own merits. 

Simultaneously with these efforts, and possibly 
encouraged by them in their earlier stages, a more 
general movement was inaugurated to secure for the 
whole country what was being so nobly won in 
Virginia. A general committee had been appointed 
in New England, of which Rev. Isaac Backus 
became the secretary in 1772, to whose management 



THE CONTINENTAL CONGRESS. 97 

the whole matter was committed. The secretary- 
was active in this service. He collected facts, pre- 
pared and circulated petitions, and corresponded and 
travelled, for the promotion of this object. 

Before the first Continental Congress at Phila- 
delphia, Sept. 5, 1774, the committee, with Mr. 
Backus as leader, presented themselves with a 
» memorial, pleading for the protection " of the in- 
alienable rights of conscience to all." Here they 
encountered much opposition from the Massachu- 
setts delegates, and even from Robert Treat Paine. 
Old John Adams replied to them, that " they might 
as well turn the heavenly bodies out of their annual 
and diurnal course, as to expect that they — in Mas- 
sachusetts — would give up their Establishment." 
Not in the least discouraged, the committee memori- 
alized the Provincial Congress, and obtained the fol- 
lowing response : — 

" On reading the memorial of Rev. Isaac Backus, 
agent of the Baptist churches of this government, 
Resolved, That the establishment of civil and reli- 
gious liberty to each denomination in the Province 
is the sincere wish of this Congress ; but being by 
no means vested with the powers of civil govern- 
ment, whereby we can redress the grievances of any 
person whatsoever, they therefore recommend to the 
Baptist churches, that, when a general assembly 
shall be convened in this Colony, they lay the real 



98 THE GREAT CONFLICT, 

grievances of said churches before the same, when 
and where their petition will most certainly meet 
with all that attention due to the memorial of a 
denomination so well disposed to the public weal of 
their country. By order of Congress. — John Han- 
cock, President." 

In 1787 the National Convention at Philadelphia 
completed its draft of a constitution, and referred 
it to the States for their adoption by their respective 
legislatures. It was adopted, but in Massachusetts 
by a majority of only nineteen votes, one of the chief 
objections being against the article which provided 
that no religious test shall be required as a qualifi- 
cation for office. While the Baptists favored the 
Constitution as a whole, they were dissatisfied with 
this last article, on the ground of its insufficiency 
to secure liberty of conscience to all people. 

As a consequence, the Committee of Virginia 
determined to address Gen. Washington upon the 
subject ; and in reply he assured them of " his 
readiness to use his influence to make these rights 
indisputable," and declared that " the Baptists had 
been the persevering promoters of the glorious 
Bevolution." Their appeal was strengthened by 
remonstrances from other quarters, especially by the 
declarations of several States, such as Virginia, New 
Hampshire, and New York, that liberty of con- 
science should not be abridged, restrained, or modi- 



THE VICTORY WON. 99 

fied. The effect of these representations is written 
in that Magna Charta of religious freedom, which, 
to her everlasting honor, was proposed by Virginia, 
and which became the first amendment to the Con- 
stitution of the United States. 

In the course of time, some earlier, others later, 
each of the great commonwealths, with (according 
to The Catholic Review} the exception of New 
Hampshire, wheeled into line, and, by conforming 
their constitutions and laws to the doctrine of the 
general government, delivered the country from 
the withering blight of ecclesiastical favoritism and 
oppression. 

Thus was the victory won upon these shores. 
The members of a despised and calumniated sect, 
few in numbers and poor in fortune, thus brought 
to public view those immortal principles which 
dignify humanity by placing each soul on terms 
of personal and independent commerce with the 
Almighty, and, by their unexampled labors and 
sacrifices, secured their recognition by the highest 
authority of the Republic. 

I have not spoken at length of those who co- 
operated with them in this glorious task, nor of 
the influence of certain political events, such as the 
practical sympathy of Catholic France with the civil 
revolution, which, by abating sectarian prejudice, 



100 THE GREAT CONFLICT. 

moulded public opinion, and in no small degree 
facilitated the triumph of religious liberty. These 
aids, powerful and possibly absolutely necessary, 
should neither be overlooked nor undervalued ; 
but, after every allowance has been made for their 
potency, the fact still remains, that the Baptists 
were the first, most consistent and persistent, ad- 
vocates of this sacred cause, and that the amount 
of service they have performed in its behalf is so 
incalculable, that impartial posterity will not fail 
to honor them as the chiefest among earth's noblest 
benefactors. 

A century has passed since the dawning of this 
long-hoped-for day. It has been a century of trials 
and of changes. The theories which were regard- 
ed by many, a hundred years ago, as visions and 
delusions, have been subjected to the searching 
test of experience. Predictions muttered by croak- 
ers and prejudiced judges have not been fulfilled. 
The abandonment of Christianity, which was fore- 
told as a consequence of the separation of Church 
and State; the fail are to support a gospel ministry, 
the increase of licentiousness, and the prevalence 
of impiety, which were inevitably to destroy us, — 
most happily have not been realized. 

Instead of these evils, Christianity has continued 
to be revered ; and her progress in these States is 
one of the marvels of the century. Her growth in 



THE GLORY OF AMERICA. 101 

numbers is unprecedented, and the generousness 
of her gifts is unparalleled. She has founded and 
endowed magnificent seats of learning ; she has 
favored and fostered an enlightened system of 
popular education ; she has sanctioned and promoted 
the advancement of scientific inquiry ; she has 
originated and cherished the noblest philanthropies ; 
and she has established and sustained the sublimest 
missionary enterprises. 

The fathers of liberty were not visionaries. They 
were men of rugged common sense ; and, after a 
hundred years of trial, their great thought is not 
found wanting. Should we not, therefore, revere 
their memories ? Should we not, also, bless our 
country, to whose patriotism and statesmanship the 
doctrine of soul-liberty is indebted for the fair, 
broad, open field it here enjoys, where its resources 
are developed, and its treasures are displayed, in 
absolute security? Had America bestowed upon 
her citizens no other boon than this, it alone would 
have entitled her to everlasting honor; and when, 
in the course of human events, her now waxing 
greatness shall wane, and the vicissitudes of fortune 
shall erase from the tablets of time the records of 
her most notable achievements, this one act shall 
survive all others, crowning her memory with im- 
mortal renown, and enshrining her name in the 
hearts of remotest generations. 



102 THE GREAT CONFLICT, 

u Oh, sprung from earth's first blood ! oh, tempest-nursed ! 

For thee what fates? I know not. This I know : — 
The soul's great freedom-gift, of gifts the first, 

Thou first on man in fulness didst bestow. 
Hunted elsewhere, God's Church with thee found rest : 
Thy future hope is she, that queenly guest." 

The history of religious liberty is not completed. 
It is no dead issue. The past has but prepared the 
present to take up this cause, and carry it forward 
into the future. Edouard Laboulaye, in his work 
entitled " La Liberte Religieuse," expresses the 
conviction, that " La liberte religieuse, c'est la 
grande question de l'avenir." He is correct. Lib- 
erty cannot pause. Its blessings are too divine to 
be arrested on their march toward universal empire. 
It is the " question of the future." Millions upon 
millions of our race have never heard of it ; or, if 
they have heard, do not possess it, and are merely 
hoping and praying for its presence. Millions who 
have acknowledged its sovereignty do not compre- 
hend its nature, or perceive its bearings ; and 
thousands of these millions, we fear, are dead to its 
spirit, and are alive only to its letter, — condemning 
all persecution, and yet blind to the fact that the 
intolerance they cherish is persecution in the matrix, 
only waiting to be born. 

For liberty in the coming years, golden words 
must be spoken, and golden deeds performed ; 



THE FUTURE OF LIBERTY. 103 

triumphs won must be extended, positions gained 
must be defended, and suffering witnesses must be 
befriended. There are principles to be vindicated, 
problems to be solved, inconsistencies to be cor- 
rected, excesses to be restrained, and abuses to be 
remedied. 

We should rejoice that no longer is the mission 
of liberty dependent on the zeal and courage of a 
few humble and despised disciples. It now gathers 
to its banner the enlightened Protestantism of 
America, and rallies to its support not only a con- 
siderable section of the same party in Europe, but 
also many of the wisest statesmen and philosophers 
of Christendom. Greater things should be done 
for liberty in the future than in the past ; for the 
passion it engenders is as deep as in former times, 
and certainly it is more extended. 

Among the many allies of the old cause, what 
should be the position of its earliest friends ? Should 
they become followers where they have been leaders ? 
Whither should they be impelled by their history ? 
Whither should they be led by their spirit ? What 
attitude should the Baptists assume and maintain, 
towards the varying aspects of religious liberty in 
this, and the approaching age ? 

These questions I desire to consider. 

As we have already stated, toleration reigns in 



104 THE GREAT CONFLICT. 

England ; but this degree of freedom, far short as it 
is of what the people are entitled to, is not enjoj'ed 
by Continental nations, save in the scantiest meas- 
ure, and secured by the most precarious of tenures. 

A few years ago, its proclamation in Spain was 
celebrated by too-credulous Protestants with flour- 
ishes of drums and trumpets, with double-leaded 
newspaper leaders, and with eloquent predictions of 
a speedy-dawning millennium. But, in fact, the 
so-called religious liberty of the Peninsula never 
amounted to much. Never, excepting possibly the 
brief administration of Castelar, have those who dis- 
sent from Rome been free from some kind of moles- 
tation in that land of the Inquisition. And, within 
the past few months, the re-appearance of the Pope 
in the Basilica of St. Peter, to receive ten thousand 
Spanish pilgrims, was made by his Holiness the 
occasion of bitter lamentations that any degree of 
toleration had been conceded to his enemies ; and, 
though he could bewail what he regards as persecu- 
tion on the part of the King of Italy towards his 
sacred person, he found it in his heart to denounce 
the few miserable privileges permitted to Protestants 
in Spain. 

From present indications, his grief will not be of 
excessive duration ; for the party of re-a^tion is in 
power, and each day fresh steps are being taken to 
abridge the constitutional rights of the anti-Roman- 



THE OUTLOOK IN EUROPE. 105 

ists. Already they are forbidden to announce their 
religious services in the newspapers, or to call the 
people to their churches by sabbath bells, or to open 
wide their sanctuary doors as an invitation for the 
spiritually weary to enter. Their schools are subject 
to Papal surveillance, foreign teachers are ostracized, 
and native converts are oppressed. These aggrava- 
tions are doubtless preparing the way for more 
serious outrages. These too are being threatened. 
The Bishop of Minorca, in a circular to his clergy, 
pronounces anathemas on those who have any 
friendly intercourse with Protestants. Kind looks, 
as well as kind acts, are alike forbidden under pain 
of ecclesiastical censure. Such tyrannical decrees 
can only mean mischief. 

The same spirit appears in other quarters. In 
France the clergy antagonize with the Republic ; for 
the Republic means equal rights for Christians of 
every persuasion, and ultimately disestablishment. 
Efforts recently made in the French Chamber, 
to curtail the appropriations for ecclesiastical pur- 
poses, met with fierce and fiery resistance. Some 
notable speeches were made on that occasion in 
the interests of religious freedom ; but the tone 
of the opposition was such as to leave the impres- 
sion that its triumph cannot be secured without 
revolution. Various works upon the subject have 
excited considerable attention in France, — notably 



106 THE GREAT CONFLICT. 

those by Edouard Laboulaye and Jules Simon. The 
latter author sums up his review of the condition of 
religious liberty in Europe in these terms : " Je con- 
clus que la liberte de conscience est nouvelle, qu'elle 
est incomplete, meme en France, et qu'elle est 
meconnue dans la moitie de TEurope. Cependant, 
nous croyons la posseder. Nous ne sentons pas notre 
maladie, ce qui est la pire de toutes les maladies. 
Nous ne comprenons pas qu'il n'y a pas de liberte 
du dehors, pour qui ne possede pas la liberte du 
dedans." — La Liberte de Conscience, p. 318. True 
it is, as he intimates, that many realize not their sick- 
ness ; but we rejoice that in France there are those 
w T ho stand nobly forth, the champions of soul-liberty, 
and that there is a Baptist church in Paris, and 
members of the same faith scattered throughout the 
provinces, pledged to advocate every intelligent 
measure for its advancement. 

In Mexico spiritual thraldom is the rule. Infa- 
mous outrages have there been wantonly committed 
against Protestants by the reigning faith. Indeed, 
wherever the Papacy has the power, in the New 
World or in the Old, it never hesitates to employ the 
most unjustifiable means for the extirpation of what 
it is pleased to regard as heresy. And what is more 
monstrous, an Englishman, Cardinal Manning, in 
the name of unity steps forth to justify this cruel 
policy. His recent extenuation of the Spanish 



DOOMSDAY COMING. 107 

authorities is a masterpiece of special pleading, 
worthy an inquisitor of the fifteenth century, but 
unworthy an ecclesiastic of the nineteenth. 

The Greek Church is governed by similar views ; 
and, although lately she has been wringing her hands 
in well-simulated horror over the atrocities com- 
mitted in Bulgaria, she has not abstained from vio- 
lence against those of a purer faith than her own 
within the territory of Russia. If she would only 
present the spectacle of a weeping suppliant at the 
throne of the Czar, pleading for the liberty of con- 
science to which all dissidents are entitled, it would 
be as edifying a sight as it is improbable. 

Alas that it should be improbable ! Alas that 
even Protestant countries, such as Germany and 
Sweden, where national religious establishments 
reign, should be guilty of injustice towards the 
helpless thousands who cannot sustain their eccle- 
siastical authority ! But so it is. The dominant 
Lutheran faith has but little sympathy with those 
who differ from it, however honestly. The spirit of 
Luther still tenants the house he founded; and much 
labor and many prayers will be required to exorcise 
it entirely. 

This unhappy condition of things in Europe can- 
not long continue. The day is near, which shall 
prove a doomsday to spiritual tyranny. A struggle 
is impending. Exhausted by taxes to support an 



108 THE GREAT CONFLICT. 

aristocratic clergj^, impatient of petty annoyances, and 
outraged by flagrant wrongs, the people long for 
deliverance. The example of America, the slowly 
dawning consciousness of their own strength and 
dignity, renders them restless and dissatisfied under 
the restraints of priestly masters, and must end in 
the most radical and beneficent of changes. By 
agitation and legislation they may seek to accom- 
plish their purposes ; but if these fail the power 
of revolution will not go untried. Law-abiding 
as the people of Europe may be, they have in 
the past recognized^ and, very likely, will in the 
future recognize, a limit to submission. They may 
patiently endure to the utmost; but, when the utmost 
has been borne, they will spurn the favor and pat- 
ronage of governments, conferred in ever so broad a 
toleration act, and with the strong hand of revolt 
wrest their inalienable rights. 

Before such a storm, the millinery of ritualism 
would be torn to shreds, the sacramental mummeries 
of sacerdotalism and the superstitious solemnities of 
Jesuitism would be scathed and blasted. Priestly 
thrones would totter, priestly crosses be broken, 
priestly privileges be abolished, and possibly every 
trace of cruel hierarchies be obliterated. 

God hasten the dawning of such a day ! but God 
avert so sombre au evening from heralding the 
morning ! We can pray for the new creation, but 



DUTY OF AMERICAN CHRISTIANS. 109 

not for the chaos ; for the glorious clay over which 
"the sons of Gocl will shout with joy," but not for 
the terrible night, which, all too probably, must pre- 
cede it. While we would not fan the smouldering 
fires of revolt, we should not be indifferent specta- 
tors of the evils which afflict our brethren in other 
lands ; we should not retire from the conflict ; we 
should not close our ears to the cry of the oppressed, 
nor shut our eyes to their necessities. 

Oliver Cromwell shook his clinched mailed hand 
in the face of Catholic Europe when the hunted 
Vaudois were threatened with extermination ; Milton 
excited the sjmapathy of millions in their behalf, by 
his touching ode, — 

" Avenge, O Lord, thy slaughtered saints ! " 

and Geneva could find a refuge for them, where the 
wanderers could securely rest. While it is not for 
the friends of religious liberty in America to threaten 
like Cromwell, it is at least their duty to imitate 
Milton in shaping public sentiment through the 
agency of the printed page. They can also offer in 
this land shelter and protection to all who desire 
deliverance from tyranny. And, what is better still, 
out of their abundance these Christian freemen can 
contribute towards the support of Protestant pastors, 
and the founding of Protestant schools and churches 
in Europe. Certainly, with honor to themselves, 



110 THE GREAT CONFLICT. 

the Baptists can do no less ; and I am thankful that 
they have not failed to attempt as much. By their 
missions in Italy, Sweden, Germany, Greece, and 
Spain, they have already planted the seeds of reli- 
gious liberty; and it is incredible, that, through a 
mistaken economy, they should leave them to perish 
in the soil. 

Jules Simon has expressed the sentiment, that 
" Liberty is never safe." Her enemies are always 
vigilant and active, always energetic and untiring in 
their efforts to accomplish her destruction. They 
are as much in earnest in America as in any other 
country. Religious liberty is no more attractive to 
them beneath our skies, than it is beneath the sun- 
nier skies of Italy. If we would discover these per- 
sistent foes, they are to be found grouped around 
the banner of the Papacy. 

Some genial souls imagine that the Romish 
Church has been softened into forbearance and 
charity by republican institutions. This is a de- 
lusion. The tigress is only caged. Her nature 
remains unchanged. What ecclesiastics accepted 
the dogma of infallibility with more alacrity than 
did those of the United States? Where in the 
ranks of the Catholic clergy can firmer advocates be 
found, than in this land, of the infamous doctrine 
that thought on religious subjects should be regu- 



PRESENT ATTITUDE OF ROMAN IBM, 111 

latecl by the priesthood ? Here, as in Europe, they 
may submit to uncontrollable circumstances ; but 
neither here nor there have they abandoned the 
war against soul-liberty. If the Catholic clergy of 
America believe the infallibility of the pope, then 
must they believe, what he has declared, "that 
religious liberty and freedom of the press are deliri- 
ous ravings;" and, if they believe this, in very- 
consistency, they must employ every means to arrest 
them. 

Should these ecclesiastics assure us that our sus- 
picions are unfounded, we could not believe them, 
because it is a part of their avowed creed to keep 
no faith with Protestants. Moreover, the attitude 
of the Papacy is of such a kind as to awaken 
most serious apprehension. Its devoted sons have 
obtained, from state and municipal authorities, large 
and valuable grants of land ; they have also secured 
extraordinary immunities ; and, to advance still fur- 
ther their own interests, they are tampering with 
political parties, are aiming to control legislation, and 
are seeking to break up and destroy our educational 
system. 

These movements are but means to an end. They 
are steps leading to the recognition of Romanism as 
the established religion of these States. Though 
the scheme may appear visionary and wild, it can be 
matched by others, in the past, seemingly as hopeless, 



112 THE GREAT CONFLICT, 

which have succeeded. Nothing is really impossible 
to the determined, who through years steadily pursue 
a definite plan ; and no class of men are more fully 
consecrated to a single aim than the Catholic clergy. 
If they abolish our public schools, if they can obtain 
immense possessions, and political supremacy at the 
ballot, what is to hinder them at last from making 
their Church national in name, as it will be in 
fact? 

The danger must not be ignored. I would not 
encourage the least unfairness towards our Catholic 
fellow-citizens. The rights secured to them by the 
first constitutional amendment, should be respected. 
Their interests before the law, should be equally 
sacred with our own. But the Church of which 
they are members will bear watching, and she should 
be watched. There should be no division of the 
school funds to satisfy her demands, and no special 
grants of land to win her political support. It is 
for the Protestant party of America to resist such 
measures, as it is its duty to check this growing 
power, by keeping itself apart from Romish mum- 
meries, and by withholding patronage from Romish 
seminaries. 

Upon the Baptists, in common with others, this 
obligation rests. They are the ancient enemies of 
the Papacy, and, from the Scripturalness of their 
faith, are the best qualified to resist its encroach- 



BIBLE JN THE SCHOOLS. 113 

ments. Their mission is peculiarly identified with 
the interests of freedom ; and they should not 
regard it as accomplished while such a foe, with 
such a front, remains upon our shores. As well 
talk to the wise general, that he has done every 
thing, when his troops, flushed with victory, occupy a 
field which the beaten foe is bound to re-possess, 
and towards which by secret passes and circuitous 
routes he is bringing up his forces. Such an officer 
rejoices at his peril: to give himself, in self-con- 
fident security, to repose would be madness. And 
little short of madness will it prove for Baptists and 
the mighty Protestant party of America, to engross 
themselves in business, to steep their souls in apathy, 
while Rome with untiring energy and subtle plead- 
ing is sapping the foundation of their liberties. 
O Samson ! if thou art asleep in the Delilah-lap of 
luxurious ease, if thy strong arms have been bound 
with withes, up, oh ! up, for the Philistines are upon 
thee! 

It is intimated in various quarters, that the cause 
of religious liberty in this country is being as much 
imperilled by its professed friends, as by its undis- 
guised foes. The particular ground for this charge, 
is the presence and use of the Bible in the pub- 
lic schools. It is regarded by Romanists, and by 
infidels, as a violation of the First Constitutional 
Amendment, that the Scriptures by public authority 



114 THE GREAT CONFLICT. 

should be read in the hearing of scholars, whose 
parents cannot subscribe to its inspiration, nor 
acknowledge that the text of the original has been 
faithfully rendered, nor admit that it should be studied 
without the aid of a priestly interpreter. The fact 
that a large proportion of the Evangelical party are 
in favor of this custom, is brought forward as evi- 
dence of their insincerity in glorifying religious 
liberty. 

This assumption, I am satisfied, is entirely gratu- 
itous. With Protestants the vexed question does 
not take the shape of an expedient for the prose- 
lyting of Catholics, or, in any way, for the special 
furtherance of their own faith. Such thoughts are 
very far from their minds. They mean to wrong no 
man ; and, consequently, they have manifested a 
disposition to harmonize in any practical way the 
conflict of opinions upon this subject. Very many 
of them have been so sensitive to the imputation 
of persecution, that they have even expressed them- 
selves willing to yield the point to their adversaries. 
And, as for the Baptists, although they love the 
Bible, and would gladly see it wherever it makes a 
place for itself, they could not be induced to do any 
thing that would look like forcing its authority on 
the people, either by unequal law, or by the specious 
plea of the right of the majority to rule. So thor- 
oughly is this principle ingrained in their nature, 



STABILITY OF CHRISTIANITY. 115 

that it is exceedingly problematical whether they 
could be persuaded to give a decisive vote, North 
or South, for the retention of the Bible in the 
schools. As they neither regard their own existence 
nor that of Christianity involved in the issue, they 
are more than ready to deal, with those who 
differ from them, as they would be done by. No 
sectarian prejudice, no sectarian interest warps 
their judgment. No alarms for the future impel 
them to deal unfairly. They do not apprehend 
dire calamities, even should the enemies of the 
Scriptures carry their measures. Christianity has 
had its mournful friends in every age, — men who 
have heard in every change the knell of doom ; 
but Baptists as a people are not of this number. 
It has survived persecution, scientific discoveries, 
and infidel ravings, — yea, it has survived the ob- 
scuration of the Bible in dead languages as well as 
legal prohibition ; and its life surely cannot now 
depend on the retention of the Book of books in 
primary educational establishments. 

Personally, I should dislike exceedingly any 
change in the prevailing custom. Yet, if I thought 
the demand a just one, though made by those who 
have no claim upon our consideration, I would not 
hesitate to advocate that the voice of God's word 
be hushed where our children gather to receive 
instruction. But wherein lies the wrong ? where 



116 THE GREAT CONFLICT. 

the outrage? The position of the Bible in the 
schools is not the result of any union between Prot- 
estants and the State; nor was it secured by 
the political action of one denomination, or of all 
combined. The Church, as such, did not put it 
there, and the Church, as such, cannot take it away. 
A profound reverence for its teachings, a hearty 
confidence in its inspiration, impelled the people in 
the various States and municipalities of our country 
to place it where the young might hear its precepts. 
Unquestionably, they had a constitutional right to 
regulate the matter through their school boards. 
A similar right is now claimed by some Catholics 
and infidels, in common with some Protestants, to 
prohibit the sale of intoxicating liquors ; and, what 
is more, such enactments have been recognized as 
lawful by those, who are qualified by judicial learn- 
ing to express an opinion. 

The preservation of morals, or their purification, 
on which so largely rest the material interests of 
commonwealths, lies at the foundation of both pleas ; 
and their unsoundness has never yet been demon- 
strated. Whether it will be in the future, or not, 
remains to be seen ; but, whatever the decision, the 
Church is not responsible. This I would have my 
readers fully understand, that they may perceive, 
in view of the facts, how utterly groundless the 
charges of persecution are. 



A PRIESTLY WAR. 117 

In this connection, I desire to submit a few 
thoughts, which, in my judgment, should influence 
the people to remain satisfied with existing arrange- 
ments. 

It should be remembered that the priests are lead- 
ing in this agitation ; not because they advocate the 
principle that a little religion in primary education 
is an evil, but because they seek by these means to 
break up what they call our secular system of 
instruction altogether, that they may, through the 
establishment of Papal schools, sustained by public 
funds, be enabled to impart sectarian teachings. 
They would shut out the light of true, clear, shining 
knowledge, and obscure the mind of the rising gener- 
ation with the ecclesiastical fog, which for ages has 
enveloped the common people of Spain and Italy. 
I confess to an indisposition to subscribe to this 
programme ; for this reason, among many others, that 
the priests are not the parties primarily responsible, 
either by nature or law, for the training of children. 
This issue mainly concerns parents; and, as the 
doctrine of celibacy excludes priests from this rdle, 
they should not be permitted to shape the nation's 
policy on a subject so vital to its welfare. When 
the Catholics of the United States declare that the 
presence of the Bible in the schools is an outrage, 
and that as parents, as citizens, — not Catholics, — 
their conscience is aggrieved, then the question will 



118 TEE GREAT CONFLICT. 

assume a slightly different phase. But, we are told, 
that the priests say their parishioners are being out- 
raged. Mark, the priests say this : those for whom 
they speak never have said it. If it shall be 
answered, " The priests are the voice of their peo- 
ple," we cannot admit the plea ; for in a free 
government every man must be his own voice. 
The people have not spoken. Instead of such a 
protest, they send their children to the public 
schools, unless restrained by ecclesiastics. They 
seem satisfied with present arrangements, convinced 
that no perversion of their children's faith is at- 
tempted by those who have them in charge. 

Another consideration which should weigh with 
the voters of America, in coming to a final decision, 
is the unexampled beneficial influence the study of 
the Bible has upon all, especially upon the young. 
The history of the race during many weary years 
is exclusively recorded there ; the views of some of 
the wisest, and best of men on morals are there 
expressed ; the relation of God to law is there 
unfolded ; and some of the loftiest types of heroism, 
and the grandest sentiments of piety are there pre- 
sented. Understanding, imagination, and affection 
alike are cultivated by its pages. While the chil- 
dren should not be forced to receive these writings 
as from God, — even were such a thing possible, — 
they should not be kept in ignorance of them. The 



PERILS TO FAITH FROM SCIENCE. 119 

evidences of their claims to divine origin may 
wellbe left for future, and individual investigation; 
but their teachings should be mastered. The pupil 
may be left free to accept or reject their inspiration ; 
but he should not be free to remain in ignorance of 
their contents. 

If, however, it should be objected that their study 
might bias the mind of the child in favor of 
their loftiest pretensions, and on that account 
should be forbidden ; then, on similar grounds, might 
Christians object to instruction in physical science. 
It is generally understood, that the drift of this 
study is towards materialism in its baldest form, 
and towards the doctrines of necessity and atheism. 
The very primary lessons of geology, as usually 
unfolded, appear contrary to the Mosaic history of 
creation. But on this account, we should not desire 
to have its study abandoned, either in academy or 
seminary. No : no man's education can be counted 
thorough, apart from the information it conveys, and 
discipline of mind it imparts. If it should shake a 
boy's confidence in the Bible, we would regret it ; 
but he must encounter the peril. For the peril's 
sake I dare not say to him, "Be ignorant of the prog- 
ress of modern thought." In every blessing lurks a 
danger. Freedom may run into licentiousness : 
shall I forbid freedom ? Pleasure may lead to vice : 
shall I proscribe pleasure ? Investigation may lead 



120 THE GREAT CONFLICT. 

to error : shall I denounce investigation ? So 
science may lead to * infidelity, and the Bible to 
Christian faith ; but would not an interdict on 
either, because of what should be regarded by 
parents as the peril, be a fearful outrage and an 
invasion of the scholar's liberty? 

In his autobiography, (a melancholy book,) John 
Stuart Mill says, " I was brought up, from the 
first, without any religious belief in the ordinary 
sense of the term. It would have been wholly 
inconsistent with my father's idea of duty, to allow 
me to acquire impressions contrary to his convictions 
and feelings respecting religion." And this, I am 
persuaded, is the narrow spirit that dictates in infidel 
quarters their opposition to the Scriptures in educa- 
tion. We cannot yield to it in them, nor en- 
courage it in ourselves ; but most heartily must 
plead, in the name of liberty, that the doors be open 
to the young, that they may enter at will the store- 
houses both of Scripture and science, leaving the 
consequences to their own intellect and conscience, 
and the good providence of God. 

A small, but somewhat influential class of agi- 
tators, are announcing another peril to religious 
liberty, which they believe they have discovered 
in the legal provisions exempting from taxation 
property held for ecclesiastical, educational, and 
philanthropical enterprises. They allege that such 



TAXTNG CHURCH PROPERTY. 121 

exemption is unfair towards the persons, who have 
no sympathy with the objects represented by these 
various interests, and in reality is an indirect method 
of taxing them for their support. They also profess 
to see in this privilege a practical alliance between 
Church and State, which in coming years may lead 
to more serious abuses. Visions of ecclesiastical 
bodies and religious corporations, grown corrupt and 
tyrannical through the influence of unbounded 
earthly possessions, chronically haunt these alarm- 
ists, and disturb the serenity of their mind. Their 
fervid imagination pictures a future for the United 
States, in which a spiritual despotism is the central 
figure, with dungeons, proscriptions, and possibly 
martyrdoms, as its sombre and mournful surround- 
ings. 

In my judgment, there is no real ground for this 
alarm. These visions are not born of inspiration, 
but of a species of nightmare. So far as they are 
infidel in origin, their aim undoubtedly is to embar- 
rass Christian progress ; so far as they are Protes- 
tant, they seem to be born of a desire to curb the 
material prosperity of Romanism ; and in neither 
case is there proof furnished that either party is 
actuated by the higher motive which they both so 
persistently avow. On the other hand, there are 
cogent reasons why the nation should not adopt the 
narrow policy, which these agitators advocate with 
so much zeal. 



122 THE GREAT CONFLICT. 

One of the strongest pleas in support of the 
church-taxation theoiy is found in the statement, 
that exemption means a contribution from the State 
for the maintenance of religion. This, it is claimed, 
is utterly irreconcilable with the American doctrine 
of absolute separation of civil government from 
ecclesiastical institutions. But the fallacy of the 
argument can readily be perceived by reversing it. 
If a tax is levied on the church-edifice, religion is 
required by the act to pay tribute to the State. Or 
in the case of buildings and appliances devoted to 
education, if they are taxed, the value being esti- 
mated by the cost, then education is made to care 
for the pecuniary necessities of government. But 
this is as much a perversion of the American idea 
of separation, if we are to receive it as interpreted 
by the advocates of such measures, as exemption 
itself. If it is true, as they declare and we believe, 
that the two domains should be held rigidly apart, 
then the only practical consistent plan is the one 
now in operation ; for it requires neither Church nor 
State to pay tribute to the other. They are left, 
as they should be. independent of each other, and in 
the best position for their mutual prosperity. 

It should also be remembered, that the lands and 
buildings held in the interests of religion or educa- 
tion, are not property in the commercial sense of the 
word. They do not represent material productive 



SPIRITUAL AND MATERIAL VALUES. 123 

values. The church-edifice, set apart to spiritual 
labors, represents no tangible material assets. As 
far as pecuniary returns are concerned, there are 
none ; for such a building has withdrawn from the 
community the precise amount of capital which it 
cost, and henceforth it yields no profits in kind. 
Commercially the capital is dead, is no longer 
available. It is customary to estimate property 
by its actual or potential material income. Val- 
uations can only thus be regulated. But meet- 
ing-houses and school-buildings are not revenue- 
prbducing property, and cannot, therefore, be equita- 
bly taxed with other property for the support of 
government. Though it cost money, it has ceased to 
possess money value, and is worthless to the commu- 
nity, except in the spiritual revenue it yields. And 
how shall the state proceed to levy a money tax 
upon spiritual values ? 

There is another principle governing taxation, 
which the non-exemptionists appear to overlook. 
Political economists have shown that there is noth- 
ing in the nature of such levies, which requires 
that every earthly interest should bear part of the 
burden. At best, they are but expedients adopted 
to meet general and specific wants of the govern- 
ment, which should be imposed in the least onerous 
manner, and which should be exacted only where 
they will work least detriment to the common weal. 



124 THE GREAT CONFLICT. 

Iii harmony with this view, it is admitted that things 
least necessary, and things of doubtful benefit, 
should be made to bear the heaviest burden. Ac- 
cordingly, intoxicating liquors, tobacco, and luxuries, 
as silks and laces, in their order are first assessed for 
revenue purposes ; and, after them, other and more 
needful things, if demanded by public exigencies, 
and then, as lightly as possible. But what is more 
requisite and indispensable to a nation than that 
which church and educational property yields ? 
What is of more importance to the community than 
the object to which it is devoted ? This is noth- 
ing less than the formation of character ; and 
character is the glory and security of States. Acad- 
emies, colleges, are consecrated to the training of 
the mind, and the development of its resources; 
while churches are engaged in the grander work of 
perfecting its morals, and quickening its spiritual 
aspirations. They are means by which the race is 
preserved from rankest materialism, and from a rapid 
retrogression towards the Darwinian ape-ideal. 

This work the State cannot do directly, by bare 
authority. Character cannot be enacted by law ; 
legislation cannot call it into existence ; proclama- 
tions cannot fashion it ; no police force can regulate 
it, and no army win its glories. From what source, 
then, must it come ? It cannot be dispensed with : 
it is a quality more important to government than 



THE IMPORTANCE OF CHARACTER, 125 

all the material value of its territory. How is it to 
be attained ? 

Evidently it can only be furnished by the citizens 
themselves, through the medium of their education- 
al and religious establishments. But shall the State 
come in and weaken her own life by insisting on a 
tax from churches and institutions of learning, which 
must tend to paralyze benevolence, and discourage 
its efforts ? When no eternal principle of right is 
involved in the tax, and when it may go far to 
repress the ardor of those who are engaged in labor 
which is actually vifcal to the welfare of the com- 
monwealth, shall its civil authorities impose unne- 
cessary burdens upon the sources of its higher life ? 
Better sacrifice any material gain, than do aught to 
jeopardize the moral and intellectual development of 
the nation. 

What ! is America so poor, that to provide a 
revenue she must condescend to ask a contribution 
from the funds of charity towards her support ? Is 
she so bankrupt that the means donated by benev- 
olence to rescue her neglected children from evil, 
to shield her helpless sons and daughters from 
starvation, and to save her entire citizenship from 
immorality and animalism, must be taxed to sustain 
her material splendor ? Surely she is not so necessi- 
tous, nor so blind to her real grandeur, as to counte- 
nance such spoliation. 



126 THE GREAT CONFLICT. 

From time immemorial, it has been counted one 
of the chief glories of states to foster the arts and 
sciences, promote culture, and encourage genius. 
Such an enlightened policy has rendered the names 
of Athens, Rome, Constantinople, Florence, Paris, 
and other ancient cities, forever famous. Can it be, 
that in this nineteenth century, the world is to 
behold the sad spectacle of a nation so utterly mate- 
rialized as to have no sympathy with all that tends to 
refine and elevate ? Can it be that America should 
ever covet the shame of laying an embargo on intel- 
lectual expansion and moral progress, when all other 
civilized nations are doing what they can to quicken 
them? Were she called upon to foster art and 
philanthropy at great pecuniary cost to herself, some 
excuse might be framed for her refusal ; but as she 
is simply requested not to hinder, not to impede 
their development, for her to refuse, would be to 
incur indelible reproach. 

As well might the eagle rend and tear the pinions 
of her eaglets, thus dooming them to a life among 
misty valleys, when they might have soared and held 
communion with the skies, as for America, whose 
symbol the eagle is, to maim her people by discour- 
aging that culture, which as wings is fitted to bear 
them to purer regions than politics or the mere sec- 
ularities of life can furnish. 

I cannot believe that counsels so ignoble will pre- 



MISLEADING OPINIONS. 127 

vail. I cannot think that the citizens of America 
will ever sanction the adoption of a policy so narrow. 
They must ultimately realize that the jealousy for 
liberty, which its advocates avow, is gratuitous and 
needless, and that the exemption of church and edu- 
cational property from taxation can never compro- 
mise its integrity, nor endanger its existence. 

The doctrine enunciated by the Baptists, the 
progress of which I have tried historically to trace in 
these pages, has exclusively to do with the relations 
which should exist between Church and State. It 
goes no farther than to define, bound, and limit the 
extent of their mutual independence. Here it ter- 
minates ; and here it might be left, but for the fact 
that for half a century or longer, and especially in 
our day, efforts have been made to give it a wider, 
and, in some cases, a misleading application. 

It is now claimed by not a few Christian brethren, 
that religious liberty should reign as absolutely in- 
side of a church organization, as in her outward 
relations. In Dr. Channing's time the singular 
position was maintained, on the part of certain 
dissidents, that they had as much right to recogni- 
tion and standing within Congregational churches 
since their abandonment of evangelical views as 
before. This assumption was met by Prof. Moses 
Stuart, and some remarkable letters were pub- 



128 THE GREAT CONFLICT. 

lished on both sides of the controversy. A sim- 
ilar claim is put forth to-day, by those who do not 
agree with all the teachings of the denominations 
of which they are members ; and it is a mat- 
ter of interesting inquiry, to ascertain how far 
such a claim should be countenanced, and in what 
manner, the brethren who make it should be treated. 
Having ' voluntarily entered into engagements with 
others, which voluntarily they can terminate, are 
they warranted, by any fair construction of the doc- 
trine of liberty, to demand the privileges of their 
position if they disregard their obligations ? and, if 
they are not, how should they be dealt with ? 

The importance of this inquiry is possibly greater, 
than at first may appear to my readers. There is a 
tendency, more wide-spread than is generally sup- 
posed, to complain that articles of faith cramp intel- 
lectual liberty, and that the laws and rules of 
religious communities restrict unduly inclination and 
action. In the name of liberty, latitudinarianism is 
exalted ; in its name, disorder is encouraged ; in its 
name, fixity is unfixed, and the solidities of Christian 
societies reduced to a state of flux. A restless spirit 
has invaded the peaceful realms of wholesome gov- 
ernment ; and, growing more restless, it drives 
wildly against things apj)ointed, and seems to be on 
the eve of proclaiming the anarchic doctrine, that no 
power to appoint should exist any where. 



SPREAD OF LIBERALISM. 129 

This evil is not confined to any particular denomi- 
nation. It shows itself among the Presbyterians 
and Episcopalians, as distinctly as among the Con- 
gregationalists and Baptists. The English Church 
is not free from the growth of what her articles 
condemn as heresies; and the American arm of that 
body is not in a perfectly sound condition. Among 
her members in the Old Country, and in this, a 
great diversity of opinion exists regarding the inter- 
pretation of the creed, the position and efficacy of 
rites and ceremonies, and the dignities and authority 
of ecclesiastics. Psedobaptists of other names have 
their own internal troubles : on the side of the 
laity, they perceive the practice of infant-baptism 
rapidly falling into desuetude, and, on the side of 
the clergy, an increasing drift towards an attenuated 
orthodoxy. In common with their brethren of the 
Baptist faith, they experience how difficult it is to 
restrain and control the ambition of struggling lead- 
ers, and how hard it is to maintain any thing like 
order and continuity in the life of a Christian com- 
munity. 

Among the Baptists these evils may have been 
magnified by their opponents ; but they are vigorous 
enough to cause disquiet and anno3'ance. Less 
excusable though they are in a denomination, where 
the republican theory of church government is 
sometimes carried to an extreme irreconcilable with 



130 THE GREAT CONFLICT. 

order, they have obtained an unpromising degree of 
strength. Some of its preachers, in the name of 
liberty, ridicule doctrines they pledged themselves to 
support, and reply to remonstrances against their 
course in terms foul with the charges of bigotry and 
sectarianism ; and others, who have never known 
the weight of spiritual manacles, conceive that they 
are called of God to be the apostles of a freedom, 
which, in its last analysis, is only a form of irre- 
sponsible insubordination. 

This tendency to set at defiance law and order, to 
encourage looseness in faith and practice, fills the 
majority of Christian people with distress and appre- 
hension. They have in them a deep sense of the 
need of ecclesiastical, as well as of social order. 
There is a notion in their minds, that the structural 
necessities of religious societies demand, equally 
with those of a secular character, some definite 
authority, some definite rights and duties, and some 
definite limitations to forbearance. They cannot 
bring themselves to believe that liberty means that 
there should be no authority in Israel, and that 
every man should do what is right in his own eyes, 
without regard to the welfare of the community in 
which he lives. 

To my way of thinking, they are correct ; for the 
sentiments of the latitudinarian are pernicious, and 
can only result in dire calamity to Christendom. 



LIBERTY AND LAW. 131 

The interests of law are no less sacred than the 
interests of liberty ; for law is the guaranty of lib- 
erty, not its enemy ; and liberty, if it would guard 
its own honor, must ever be the enthusiastic friend 
of law. Each of them rests upon an ultimate fact 
which is divine, — liberty, on the majesty and great- 
ness of the individual conscience ; law, on the fact 
of our God-given social instincts, and, as a conse- 
quence, on the divine origin of the Church. And 
there is an inevitable necessity of upholding and pro- 
tecting the Church by law against caprice or passion. 
To depreciate, insult, or overthrow law, in the name 
of liberty, must sooner or later end in licentiousness 
and ruin, in whatever domain of life the unholy mis- 
sion is undertaken. 

Thomas Carlyle expresses some sober thoughts 
upon this subject, which are as applicable to the 
Church as to the State. " Disorder," he saj^s, " is a 
thing which veracious created nature, even because 
it is not chaos ami a waste-whirling baseless phan- 
tasm," rejects and disowns. " Disorder," he ex- 
claims, " insane by the nature of it, is the hatefullest 
of things to mail;, who lives by sanity and order." 
" All anarchy, all evil, all injustice, is by the nature 
of it, suicidal, and cannot endure." " Arrangement 
is necessary to man ; arrangement, were it grounded 
only on that old primary evangel Force, with 
sceptre in the shape of hammer." So wrote 



132 THE GREAT CONFLICT. 

Southey, testifying that " order is the sanity of the 
mind, the health of the body, the peace of the city, 
the security of the state." And Richard Hooker, 
with a stately eloquence, most admired by the most 
admirable masters of English prose, at the close of 
his first book on Ecclesiastical Polity, bears similar 
testimony in these words : " Of Law there can be no 
less acknowledged than that her seat is the bosom 
of God, her voice the harmony of the world; all 
things in heaven and earth do her homage, the very 
least as feeling her care, and the greatest as not 
exempt from her power ; both angels and men, and 
creatures of what condition soever, though each in 
different sort and manner, yet all with uniform 
consent, admiring her as the mother of their peace 
and joy." 

If the convictions of these men are worthy our 
attention, if their views are entitled to our respect, 
then we must admit, that serious disorder counte- 
nanced by the Church must prove the prelude of her 
destruction. How long, think you, would benevo- 
lent associations, scientific circles, and educational 
societies endure, and continue their usefulness, were 
they to approve or tolerate its reign? And what 
aspect would our country present to the world, were 
her constitution ignored, her laws disregarded, and 
their administration neglected ? Such abuses would 
speedily transform her into the likeness of the 



THE NECESSITY OF ORDER. 133 

stormy republic of Greece, that meteor of liberty, 
which shot athwart the heavens, dazzled, and 
exploded. Like ancient Rome she would be cursed 
with the despotism of mobs, the corruption of 
demagogues, the ostracism of justice ; she would be 
destroyed by patrician arrogance, plebeian madness, 
tribunal storms, unending factions, and perpetual 
wars. 

Surely definite government, settled order, must be 
as needful to a spiritual community, whose purpose 
it is to maintain truth and righteousness, oppose 
error and wickedness, while it toils to secure the 
salvation of the race. God has wan-anted this 
opinion by imparting to the Church in his word the 
form of her organization, the principles and rules 
of her administration, and the ordinances by which 
she is to be made distinctively Christian before men. 
He who called her into being, has invested her 
spirit with a body as tangible and palpable as that 
with which he clothed at first the immortal soul. In 
such a world as this, a disembodied man or woman 
would be powerless ; and equally powerless to wage 
her warfare against sin, and to subdue the sinner to 
Christ, must every church be that commits the 
suicidal folly of maiming or destroying the form 
which God has given her. 

And now, in what temper, and after what manner, 
should they be dealt with, whose influence lies in 



134 THE GREAT CONFLICT. 

the direction of such dissent, confusion, and disin- 
tegration ? How should a majority of any church, 
holding faithfully to its doctrines and practices, 
treat those brethren who are constrained to differ 
from them ? Clearly, they should not be indifferent 
to what is going on around them. To fold their 
arms apathetically, and take no thought for the 
honor of God's truth or the dignity of God's 
ordinances, does not comport with any just con- 
ception of Christian obligation. They must do one 
thing or the other : they must either check these 
inroads, or abandon the Church to lawlessness of 
one kind or another. If they are unwilling to incur 
the guilt involved in a course so pusillanimous, how 
shall they proceed, that, in maintaining the sacred- 
ness of God's revealed will, they may not entirely 
disregard the sacredness of a brother's conscience ? 

Unquestionably they would not be warranted in 
proscribing the spirit of investigation. It is not 
Protestant, but papal, to forbid free and unlimited 
inquiry. A profession of religion does not termi- 
nate a man's duty to search for truth. No progress 
can be made in knowledge, unless its treasures are 
ardently sought. To condemn investigation, is to 
paralyze intellect ; yea, it is to affirm that there is 
nothing more to learn, or nothing more worth learn- 
ing, from the Sacred Scriptures : it is to assume that 
the spiritual universe has no new facts to yield in 
response to the painstaking of the patient inquirer. 



LIBERTY OF SEARCH AND OF SPEECH. 135 

The Baptists have never proceeded on supposi- 
tions so untenable. They have ever stood forth 
the champions of untrammelled intellect, — of liberty 
of search, and liberty of speech everywhere. The 
creed which symbolizes their views, is not their Bible. 
Their definitions and formulas, are the growth of 
centuries. They have been modified again and 
again, while the truths which they represent have 
been substantially preserved ; and, were they to be 
recast to-day, the light which has been thrown upon 
theology by natural science and Biblical criticism, 
would modify them yet again. The Bible is a fixed 
quantity, nature is a fixed quantity; but theology 
and science are not. They are unfixed, changing 
and changeable. By recognizing this fact, and 
acting upon it, Baptists have delivered themselves 
from Antinomian as well as from other errors, 
and from an anti-missionary spirit. They cannot, 
therefore, consistently with their past, denounce the 
aggressive spirit of inquiry in the present. Nor, is 
there any reason to believe that they are disposed to 
adopt so narrow a policy. They still say to each 
other, " Search, think, study ; leave no effort untried 
to ascertain the mind of the Spirit on all subjects 
pertaining to life and godliness." 

While Protestantism very generally encourages 
this enlightened and enlightening spirit, those who 
are moved by it to strenuous endeavor should not 



136 THE GREAT CONFLICT. 

forget, as they avail themselves of their right, that its 
exercise has never been child's play, and never will 
be. On the whole, it is rather rugged business, and 
not such business as the sensitive and timid should 
engage in. It is no field for carpet-knights, no work 
for the self-conceited. New opinions cannot be pro- 
claimed without inviting criticism, and the sharpest 
scrutiny. They shock conservatism and settled 
convictions, and necessarily excite antagonism. 
Thoughtful men, will not abandon long-cherished 
views without a struggle. And, consequently, the 
man who ventures to broach a novel doctrine, must 
possess his soul in patience, and must be prepared to 
make a way for it at the cost of personal ease and 
peace. He will never succeed in gaining a place for 
it among the received teachings of the Church, by 
fretfulness or denunciation. Manfully must he bear 
himself in a manly conflict. For him to weep over 
the so-viewed prejudices of his brethren, who cannot 
be convinced by mere assertions, is to make himself 
ridiculous. And for him to meet the sharpness of 
inevitable resistance with vituperation, or for him to 
cry bigotry, because a whole denomination cannot see 
as he does, is to be guilty of the very bigotry which 
he charges upon others. 

Let us now suppose an unfortunate case, — that 
some of those who ardently investigate are led 
to embrace conclusions diametrically opposed to 



THE LAW OF SEPARATION. 137 

the teachings of the organization of which they are 
members, and which naturally tend towards its utter 
overthrow : can their duty under the circumstances, 
or that of their associates, be at all problematical? 
If they have fallen into infidelity, or free religion, 
or, Unitarianism, their views, iowever honestly held, 
can no more be tolerated in evangelical churches, 
than can allegiance to the monarchical principle of 
government be maintained harmoniously with alle- 
giance to republican institutions. The man who is 
a loyal citizen of America, cannot, at the same time, 
be a loyal citizen of England. And no more could 
an unbeliever consistently maintain, or be encour- 
aged to maintain, his relations with a church. In 
the nature of things, there must be a separation. 
For the Church to countenance his infidelity, would 
be fatal to her own existence ; and for him to be 
willing to continue in membership with her, would 
be ruinous to his own character. If neither can 
honorably indorse the other, they abide no longer in 
real fellowship ; and, the sooner the nominal connec- 
tion is severed, the better for the integrity of both. 
While the dissident should see that it is effected at 
once, if he fails to pursue the only honorable course 
open to him, the Church in self-defence must employ 
the instrument of excision. And if she should do so, 
his liberty would not be violated ; for liberty does 
not mean the right to force her to sustain what she 
repudiates : that were tyranny. 



138 THE GREAT CONFLICT. 

But, investigation, happily, does not frequently lead 
to such radical changes in the views of ministers or 
laymen. If, however, it results in modifications of 
their belief, which, though they do not harmonize 
with the doctrines or practices of the Church, do 
not obscure her essential character, nor subvert her 
organic integrity, what course should she take? 
Should she cut them off ? Should she thrust them 
forth from her membership ? Or should she exer- 
cise towards them a generous though qualified tole- 
ration ? The latter course is the one I most heartily 
approve ; and, when it is at all practicable, it is the 
one most commonly pursued by the Baptist denomi- 
nation. 

Unquestionably there are among the Baptists, as 
among other religious people, those who seem to be 
constitutionally averse to the exercise of toleration. 
They prefer the more direct process of summary 
decapitation. It is difficult for them to make allow- 
ances for variations in belief from accepted stand- 
ards. Possibly, they have never thought much on 
their own account, and so cannot appreciate those 
who must settle all questions for themselves, and 
who cannot readily yield allegiance to the traditions 
of the Fathers. 

Such brethren, make broad their phylacteries in 
the presence of dissent. God's fair pasture-land, 
where weak ones of the flock may feed side by side 



TOLERATION IN CHURCHES. 139 

with the strong, they convert into a dry, stony 
plain, where few, even of the strongest, can find 
spiritual herbage. The heritage of the saints on 
earth, they change into a sombre pine-wood, in whose 
frowning shadow no other species of the heavenly 
plant, than that which they approve, is permitted to 
take root. Just as primroses cannot grow in a pine- 
forest, just as its dark aisles are never lighted by 
starry anemones, and just as blue-bells and forget- 
me-nots cannot spread among its brown needles and 
empty cones the azure reflection of a little heaven 
below, so forbearance, tenderness, gentleness, charity, 
have no scope for their growth, no congenial soil 
for their roots, in the sunless intolerance of these 
brethren. 

Were their advice generally followed, and their 
example commonly imitated, Christendom would be 
forced into as many divisions as there are shades of 
belief. Under such circumstances, the prayer of the 
Free Kirk minister, offered in Scotland not many 
years ago, " that all might be baptized into the spirit 
of disruption," would receive a too literal response. 
Surely we have sects in sufficient number. It can- 
not be necessary to increase them ; and it cannot be 
best for the interests of religion, to found a church 
upon every shade of opinion, or difference in prac- 
tice, which obtains among Christians. There must 
be some place for toleration ; but, if we invariably 



140 THE GREAT CONFLICT. 

separate from those who differ from us, we leave no 
room for its exercise, unless, as some brethren do, 
we condescend to tolerate those who do not dissent 
from our convictions regarding truth and duty. 

Fenelon once said, " Accordez a tous la tolerance, 
non pas en approuvant tout comme indifferent, mais 
en souffrant avec patience ce que Dieu souffre ; " 
and something of this spirit, I am satisfied, must 
prevail in the churches of all denominations, unless 
we would see the evils of sectarianism indefinitely 
multiplied. 

I have said that toleration should be qualified. 
Unless it is, it will probably run into latitudinarian- 
ism or indifference. But here I confess a difficulty. 
In what terms shall its boundaries be prescribed? 
How shall its limitations be defined ? Possibly 
they can never be absolutely determined. Dissi- 
dence varies so materially in its character, the 
circumstances which surround it are so diverse, the 
spirit which animates it is so different in different 
individuals, that it does not seem practicable to lay 
down unchangeable rules for its uniform treatment. 
No set of regulations on the subject, can be applica- 
ble to all "cases. The spirit of toleration must be 
left to work out its own manifestations ; and these 
will always be influenced by the peculiarities of its 
surroundings, and by the occasion which seems to 
call for its exhibition. 



DOCTRINAL DIFFERENCES. 141 

While I recognize the force of this difficulty, and 
while I cannot hope to obviate it by any thing I may 
write, a few general principles, suggested mainly by 
the usual practice of that denomination, whose 
history is so fully identified with the progress of 
liberty, may not be altogether useless. They may 
at least serve to show how, in ordinary cases, tol- 
eration can be exercised compatibly with personal 
integrity and the interests of good government. 

When one differs from his brethren on some non- 
vital point of doctrine, such as the order of conver- 
sion, the time or nature of the second advent, the 
extent of the atonement, he is not to be restrained 
in its proclamation. Among the Baptists, various 
opinions exist upon these subjects. Some of them 
are old school Calvinists, others are new school ; 
some believe that faith precedes repentance, others 
that repentance precedes faith ; some ardently ad- 
vocate the pre-millennial doctrine, while others as 
ardently deny it. But, as all agree to the reality of 
the atonement, the need of efficacious grace to save, 
the supernaturalness of conversion, and to the 
certain coming of Christ at last in judgment, they 
tolerate each other's differences, and permit no 
breach in their fellowship. Should one or the other 
of these parties be dissatisfied with the arrange- 
ment, and insist that his views become the standard 
of orthodoxy, a conflict would occur which could 



142 THE GREAT CONFLICT. 

only end in new compromises, or in separation. If 
such an agitator, should be led by his fiery zeal to 
denounce as narrow bigots those who cannot sub- 
scribe to his notions, he would simply be transgress- 
ing the bounds of his own liberty, and in spirit 
would be violating that of others. In such a case, 
toleration would cease to be commendable. 

A brother, in the course of his life, may em 
brace a peculiar sentiment, which, if generally 
adopted, would materially affect the Church in the 
sphere of practice, modifying her government, and 
possibly, her ordinances. While neither hiding nor 
denying his convictions, he may, for reasons satisfac- 
tory to his own conscience, be perfectly willing to 
conform to the requirements of the body in which he 
has membership. If he holds what he believes as a 
private opinion, holds it unobtrusively and kindly, 
no one, in the name of uniformity, should wage a 
warfare against him, or disturb him in the enjoyment 
of his personal right. For instance, if he regards 
democratic church government as unscriptural, and 
favors the hierarchical form, it is for him to decide 
how far his conscience will permit him to live under 
the first while believing the divine authority of the 
second. He must decide on his own course of 
conduct. Certainly so long as Baptists are *iot 
expected to indorse his theories, and he submits to 
their practice, they can have no controversy with 



OPEN COMMUNION. 143 

him. So long as they are not called upon to violate 
their own convictions, or act inconsistently with 
their faith on the subject, they can afford to pass 
unnoticed his innoxious dissent. But, should the 
innovator insist that the entire body shall make his 
theory their practice, then unless they are prepared 
to abandon their cherished doctrine, a collision of 
consciences will be unavoidable. If his conscience 
demands the recognition of what his brethren can- 
not conscientiously but regard as erroneous, tolera- 
tion is at an end : one or the other of the disputants 
must conform, or they must separate. The time will 
have come for the adoption of that course, which 
was pointed out many centuries ago by an old man, 
who said to his brethren in a season of heated 
controversy, " Let us agree as far as we can ; and, 
where we cannot agree, in God's name let us agree 
to differ." But, if he will not yield to such an 
admonition, then must the Church heed the apos- 
tolic direction to " mark, or avoid those who cause 
divisions contrary to the doctrine of Christ ; " and 
she can only do this by rigidly enforcing her disci- 
pliue. 

This principle is substantially followed by Bap- 
tist churches, in their dealings with those who pro- 
fess what are known as open-communion sentiments. 
In the United States, they maintain, with singular 
unanimity the doctrine that the Lord's Supper is 



144 THE GREAT CONFLICT. 

an ordinance committed to the care of a local 
church, and should be administered exclusively to 
its members. Wide-spread differences of opinion 
obtain among the brethren, regarding the degree of 
rigidity with which the laws of its administration 
should be enforced ; but only a few, comparatively, 
dissent from the doctrine itself. Some believe that 
no invitation to partake of the elements should be 
given at all, to any one ; others maintain that mem- 
bers of sister Baptist bodies should be invited : some 
deny the right of immersed disciples of other congre- 
gations to a seat with them ; while not a few as ar- 
dently contend, that believers who have submitted to 
this ordinance should be welcome, come they from 
any denomination whatever. There are those who 
would withhold the bread and the wine from a Paedo- 
baptist brother, who might be in attendance on the 
service ; and there are those who would administer 
them to him, or pass them to him if he were near 
them, believing that all responsibility in the case 
must be left with the recipient. These variations 
have, doubtless, deepened the impression, that has of 
late been industrious^ made, that the denomination 
is on the eve of abolishing all restrictions to the 
Lord's Supper. But such is not the case : they only 
indicate the spirit of mutual consideration and for- 
bearance which distinguishes the Baptists in the in- 
terpretation of -these restrictions; they are but signs 



TOLERATING OPEN CO MM UNIONISTS, 145 

of a charity which makes allowances, and does not 
expect exact conformity in details and particulars. 

It is notable, also, that this charity is not withheld 
even from those who, though members of Baptist 
churches, deny the scripturalness of close communion. 
There is a wide-spread desire in the denomination, 
to bear with them as far as possible, and not to pro- 
ceed to extremes with them, unless no other course 
is open. Doubtless, among the two million regular 
Baptists in America, there are several hundred, pos- 
sibly several thousand, open-communionists, but very 
rarely are they made subjects of discipline. They 
come and go in their pews, they preach and pray in 
their pulpits ; and the case is exceptional where they 
suffer any loss of standing. Instances quite numer- 
ous could be given to show, that they are, almost uni- 
formly, treated with the most marked consideration. 

This, in my judgment, is as it should be. Al- 
though I hold very rigidly to the principle of 
church communion, if a brother in a Baptist church 
cherishes the opposite view as a sacred opinion, I 
would have him neither denounced as a sentiment- 
alist, nor excluded as a heretic. The order of the 
ordinances is not the all and in all of the denomina- 
tion. He who differs from the great majority of his 
brethren on this point, may be in strict accord with 
them on all others. He may be inconsistent as a 
Baptist in this respect, and yet may be a very thor- 



146 THE GREAT CONFLICT, 

ough Baptist in every thing else. Orthodoxy on 
this subject should not be magnified, even in appear- 
ance, above orthodoxy on more important questions, 
such as the supremacy of the Scripture, or the spirit- 
uality of church-membership. We cannot see alike 
on all other doctrines : no wonder, then, that there is 
some disagreement on this. He who entertains the 
open theory, as a theory, has a right to fair treat- 
ment and candid consideration. Even if he occasion- 
ally communes with other denominations, as such 
an act does not necessarily compromise those who 
could not honestly do so, he should not be dealt with 
as an alien ; for in such case he is responsible to God 
alone. He may have reasons for his course, which 
may be so native to his temperament and modes of 
thought, as to be beyond the comprehension and 
sympathy of his brethren. His act may be born 
of an inward craving, which they have never felt. 
Absence from home in foreign lands, circumstances 
in which he may be placed, where he may feel that a 
refusal to partake with others might do more* harm 
to Christianity than participation ; and even other 
considerations, may influence his judgment. Such 
departures from the practice of the denomination 
should not be approved ; and yet it may not be best 
to make them matters of discipline. They may be 
criticised in a tolerant manner ; and the privilege of 
defence, in the same manner, should not be refused. 



LIMITS OF TOLERATION. 147 

An enlightened exchange of views upon the subject 
will always clo more than high-handed discipline 
towards remedying the defect. 

If it is thought that I carry toleration too far in 
this respect, then I must confess, that the denomina- 
tion of which I am a member is largely to blame. 
She has taught me, by her practice in such cases, 
what I candidly avow in sentiment. Not a few of 
her leading men, both lay and cleric, have partaken 
of the Supper with those who are members of other 
bodies ; and I have never known her to discipline 
them for their conduct. The newspapers may have 
censured them, but the churches have invariably left 
them alone. They may have felt that the matter 
lay beyond their jurisdiction, or that its investiga- 
tion was hindered by obstacles almost insurmount- 
able ; or, what is most likely, they may have been 
constrained by a charity which " suffereth long," to 
overlook, what they were far from approving. 

But, as I have intimated, there is a limit to such 
toleration. If nothing will satisfy the open-com- 
munion brother, but the recognition of his theory in 
the practice of the churches, then the time has 
come for resistance to his revolutionary programme. 
If he insists that they shall adopt his principles, let 
down all barriers, receive all professors to the table, 
then as he is demanding that their faith shall con- 
form to his, they can not be warranted in bearing 
much longer with him. 



148 THE GREAT CONFLICT. - . 

No amount of declamation, vituperation, or re- 
crimination, may be able to convince them. They 
may modestly, but sincerely, believe the brother to be 
in error, and humbly, but firmly think that they 
have some rights which are not to be ignored. 
Controversy will be inevitable ; and the issue must 
be separation. 

As it stands in fact, the conscience of the denomi- 
nation will not permit her to assume the responsi- 
bility of making common cause with the open- 
communionist. If, therefore, in defence of her 
integrity she casts the innovator out, is she fairly 
liable to censure ? Is she under such circumstances 
amenable to the charge of doing violence to his 
liberty, when she is but guarding her own? Should 
the innovator be unwilling to recognize this aspect 
of the case, and be guilty of disturbing the peace of 
the church, how shall he be treated? How would 
other religious bodies deal with such a disturber? 
If he avows his intention, as far as in him lies, to 
enforce his peculiar view ; if he invites men and 
women to the Lord's table, whom for reasons satis- 
factory to themselves his brethren cannot welcome ; 
and if he disregards the convictions of others, ridi- 
culing those entertaining them, and possibly mis- 
representing their motives and their spirit, — shall 
he not be adjudged guilty of attempted tyranny? 
Shall he not be regarded as despotic in conduct, 



A CRUEL SLANDER. 149 

and on this account, if on no other, be excluded 
from fellowship ? 

In this way, and in this way only, can the present 
drift towards looseness be checked, and at the same 
time the gentle spirit of toleration be preserved. 

I have been thus particular in these statements 
because it is now repeatedly charged upon the Bap- 
tists, that at last they are proving recreant to the 
doctrine of soul-liberty. Never was there more 
cruel slander. They are as catholic, and as chari- 
table as at %ny former period of their history. They 
concede to all Christians what they claim for them- 
selves, — the right to guard their faith from insult, 
and their churches from anarchy. They have made 
a way for all creeds to stand on equal footing before 
the law ; and for this they have incurred reproach, 
and sacrificed every thing but honor. Were it 
needful, they would do the same again, and shed 
the last drop of blood to insure to the humblest dis- 
ciple unfettered freedom to speak what he believes, 
to practise what he thinks. Having done this in the 
years gone by, willing to do so still, is it a great 
thing for them to ask from their brethren the privi- 
leges of that liberty, which they concede to others ? 

It has been said, that the Baptists are losing some 
of their more refined clergymen, on account of their 
close communion. If the statement is correct, the 
ministers who withdraw, because license, in effect, 



150 THE GREAT CONFLICT 

is not substituted for law, can well be spared. Such- 
chaff may be permitted to fly : it will always be 
light enough to be blown by every wind of popu- 
larity. Although it is more delicate and refined 
than the wheat, it is hardly as valuable. Baptists 
can afford to be purged of proud, indolent humors : 
the body will be more vigorous in consequence. 
But they may rest assured, if the powerful under- 
current which has borne against their denomination 
for centuries has not sapped her foundations, a 
thousand lesser tides can only froth and bubble on 
the surface, and waste their strength, not hers. So 
long as there is generosity and manliness in human 
hearts to follow with sympathetic, and, yet, exult- 
ing spirit the reverses and the triumphs of their 
ancestral principles, so long as the justice of their 
cause shines forth both broad and clear through the 
din and the dust of the conflict, there shall never 
be wanting ministers, prepared to take their posi- 
tion on the well-trodden battle-field in defence of 
liberty and law. 

Harrington, a Baptist writer of note in Cromwell's 
time, penned these significant words : " Where lib- 
erty of conscience is entire, it includes civil liberty." 
This passage we quote, that those who are not of us 
in faith may realize, that this sacred cause cannot be 
indifferent to the citizens of our country. They can 



CIVIL LIBERTY. 151 

no more afford than we to see its progress checked, 
or its supremacy diminished. 

Liberty of conscience and civil liberty are sisters, 
but the first is the elder of the two. Where the 
first exists, where the intellect spurns shackles, and 
the heart refuses allegiance to any lord but God, 
the other will soon appear ; for noble people will be 
nobly ruled, and they who are freemen before God, 
will not long consent to continue in bonds to man. 

M. Jules Simon (La Liberie de Conscience^), has 
recently said, that " liberty of conscience is certainly 
the most necessary of all our liberties : it is the 
condition and the source of all the others." His 
countryman M. Edouard Laboulaye, in an elaborate 
passage, confirms this sentiment. He shows, that 
every kind of spiritual despotism results in ignor- 
ance and fanaticism, that the pretended religious 
unity of Spain and Italy is death, while the reli- 
gious freedom of England and the United States 
is conspicuously beneficial. Castelar, in his cele- 
brated papers on " Republicanism " creates a similar 
impression. The real glory of our county in its 
origin and progress, he ascribes to the freedom all 
enjoy of reading and stud} T ing an open Bible. 

If, then, to this lofty principle we owe the spirit 
which called these States into being, we can be no 
less dependent upon it for their maintenance. If Ave 
would preserve our civil institutions, we must pre- 



152 THE GREAT CONFLICT. 

serve our love of religious liberty. It is in the sense 
of obligation to God which it fosters, it is in the 
self-governing power which it imparts, and it is in 
the inveterate hatred of every species of tyranny 
which it excites, that the security of a free common- 
wealth is lodged. A free nation cannot be stricken 
down as long as she is guarded by a free church. 
Only by the way of her heart's blood can her sister's 
life be reached. 

Behold the Capitol of our nation, that lifts its 
mighty dome towards heaven ! The sculptured 
marble sparkles in the sunlight, and the long rows 
of massive pillars gleam as shafts of silver. As it 
stands serene and immovable, it looks at once the 
model of aspiration and stability. Hark, the mut- 
tering thunder ! see how the dark clouds lower on 
the magnificent structure, and the shadows grow less 
distinct in its recesses. The golden skies assume a 
leaden tinge, and the storm-rack gathers into rugged 
masses rolling earthward like the billows of a tem- 
pestuous ocean. Distant echoing thunder comes 
nearer, its reverberations growing louder, until its 
swift-repeating peals appall the stoutest heart. From 
the overhanging blackness flash follows flash, and 
now the thunderbolt comes crashing down. Well 
may the spectators pause; well may they with up- 
lifted hands exclaim, " Our country's Capitol is 
ruined ! " 



PROTECTING CIVIL LIBERTY. 153 

Timid ones, be not afraid ! The glaring light- 
ning has not touched the proud pinnacle which 
seemed to invite its stroke. Only for a moment 
it glistened round its summit, like an aureole con- 
verted into anger. Why has it paused in its swift 
career? Examine more closely, and you will dis- 
cover projecting above the glittering dome, rising 
nearer than it to heaven, an unpretending but lofty 
rod, which has caught the descending fire and 
diverted it from the endangered pile. The conduct- 
ing medium has drawn to itself, and has buried 
in the earth the swift, consuming wrath of God. 

The Capitol at Washington fitly symbolizes the 
nation, strong, glorious, free, reposing in stability 
and beauty beneath the calm serenity of heaven. 
We cannot hope that it will always be thus peaceful 
and secure. Storms must gather, and dangers come. 
Already there are signs of tempests wild and high. 
Let us rejoice that the nation is not at their mercy. 
The modest rod that penetrates the sky from yonder 
dome is the expressive sign of that which is almost 
unrecognizable to the common eye, soul-liberty. 
Bound to the walls of our political structure, and 
rising higher than its pinnacle, soul-liberty must 
avert the bolts of dire calamity, come they from the 
thick clouds of passion and ambition, or from the 
thicker ones of ignorance and fanaticism. Though 
tempests may rage, and lightnings flash, in vain 



154 THE GREAT CONFLICT. 

their fury. Partisan politicians, fierce demagogues, 
corrupt officials, may hurl themselves like unbridled 
thunderbolts against the integrity of our civil institu- 
tions ; but impotent to harm are they so long as soul- 
liberty endures, and holds communion with the sky. 

We stand on the threshold of a new age: the 
present is creating the future. You, my readers, are 
the present; and it is for you to dash down, and 
crush beneath the weight of your sacred indignation 
every barrier to the continued progress of Liberty. 
From her hands you must unfasten every shackle, 
from her wings you must unloose every bond, from 
her feet you must remove every dragging chain. If 
she is faint, you must revive her ; if she is weak, 
you must strengthen her ; if she is maligned, you 
must vindicate her. To do this you must enrich her 
with knowledge, invigorate her with justice, and 
adorn her with beauty. Then from your side shall 
she speed her way into ages you shall never see, and 
into lands you shall never tread, to bless them with 
her sublime philanthropy forever. 

" There's a fount about to stream, 
There's a light about to beam, 
There's a warmth about to glow, 
There's a flower about to blow, 
There's a midnight blackness changing into gray: 
Men of thought and men of action. 
Clear the way ! 



PROTECTING CIVIL LIBERTY. 155 

Aid the dawning, tongue and pen I 
Aid it, hopes of honest men ! 
Aid it, paper ! aid it, type! 
Aid it, for the hour is ripe, 
And our earnest must not slacken into play: 
Men of thought and men of action, 
Clear the way ! " 



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